Port of Spain, June 26:
Ajinkya Rahane struck a brilliant century before the bowlers dished out a disciplined show as India thrashed a hapless West Indies by 105 runs in a lopsided contest in the second cricket one-dayer here.
Put into bat, India rode on Rahane’s 103 off 104 balls and a blistering 66-ball 97 from captain Virat Kohli to pile on 310 for 5 after rain delayed the start of the match by two hours and reduced it to a 43-over-a-side affair.
The Indian bowlers then took over as they restricted West Indies to 205 for 6 to put the visitors 1-0 up in the five- match ODI series.
“It was a complete performance again. The partnership between Ajinkya and Shikhar was outstanding, and myself at the back end, with Yuvi, MS and Kedar chipping in,” Kohli said after the match.
“Early wickets for Bhuvi, and really happy for Kuldeep as well, bowling for the first time and taking three wickets.
“The bench strength has always been right up there for us. Jinks couldn’t get a game in the Champions Trophy unfortunately, but shows his mental strength, steps in and scores runs.”
Surprisingly, the West Indians did not show any intent of chasing down the big target of 311 once they found the asking rate to be too high in the final 10 overs.
For India, the bowlers bowled an impeccable line and length with Kuldeep Yadav (3/50) being the most successful among them. The chinaman bowler got the first wicket of his ODI career. He did not get to bowl in his debut match in the first ODI which was abandoned due to rain.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/9) rocked the West Indies run chase by grabbing the first two wickets by the third over. He removed Kieran Powell (0) in the third delivery (0) and then had Jason Mohammed (0) in his next over.
Wicketkeeper batsman Shai Hope (81) and Evin Lewis (21) had a 89-run stand for the 3rd wicket to keep them in the hunt but once that partnership was snapped, the West Indians threw in the towel and they were happy to bat out their innings.
When Hope was out in the 26th over, the asking rate had gone above 12 an over and West Indies had already given up by then though they had six wickets in hand.
Captain Jason Holder (29) tried to get the big shots without any success as Kuldeep and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/47) gave him very few of them. When Holder was out in the 37th over, West Indies needed 136 runs from 11 overs. (PTI)
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