Sports
India skittle out Windies for 182
Perth, March 6
A superlative bowling
performance helped India skittle out the West Indies for 182 in a World
Cup Pool B encounter at the WACA here on Friday.
Asked to bowl,
India obliged by taking 44.2 overs to pack off the former two-time
champions with pace spearhead Mohammed Shami (3/35) being the pick of
the bowlers. Windies captain Jason Holder (57) offered the only
resistance down the order with his highest One-Day International (ODI)
score.
Indian pacers Shami and Umesh Yadav (2/42) bowled superbly
at the start with accurate line and length, restricting the Windies to
only 8/1 in 5 overs. In fact, Chris Gayle (21) struggled and took 11
balls to get off the mark, that too in the sixth over.
Opener
Gayle looked a little dangerous when he smashed two boundaries and a six
at the start but once he got out, Indian bowlers ripped apart the
Windies batting line-up. The burly left-hander gave three difficult
chances to India but eventually gifted his wicket when he slashed hard a
short ball only to be caught by Mohit Sharma at mid-wicket.
Shami,
who did not play in India's last match against the United Arab Emirates
due to injury, and Yadav made perfect use of the pacy and bouncy WACA
wicket to take four wickets to reduce the Caribbean side to 35/4 by the
10th over. Some poor shot selection by Windies batsmen also aided the
defending champions.
Third pacer Mohit (1/35) was also impressive
while spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (1/38) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/27)
choked the Windies and consequently the batsmen gave away their wickets.
The
Indian fielding proved to be two sides of the same coin. While some
fielded brilliantly to stop runs and clinched impressive catches, a few
sitters were also dropped by Jadeja and Rohit Sharma which helped the
Windies go beyond the 150-run mark.
All-rounder Holder was the
only one down at No.9 who offered any kind of resistance. As captain,
the 23-year-old showed the WACA wicket was a good one to bat on as he
hammered three sixes and four fours in his 64-ball innings before being
caught on the last ball of the innings.
Brief scores: West Indies
182 all out in 44.2 overs (Jason Holder 57; Mohammed Shami 3/35,
Ravindra Jadeja 2/27, Umesh Yadav 2/42) vs India.