vs
West indies
2nd Odi at Kingston
The Indian top-order remained suspect against the short ball with Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma falling to miscued pulls. Even Yuvraj and Dinesh Karthik succeeded only after surviving nervous moments against the rising delivery. It was only after the ball grew older on a slow pitch, and Jerome Taylor gave way to less threatening bowlers, that India began to dominate. The Indian bowling was also far from satisfactory; the problems caused by the inability to contain the West Indian batsmen were compounded by an unacceptable number of extras. India's bowlers conceded 19 of the 29 extras through wides and bowled two front-foot no-balls.
West Indies did well to get so close to a monstrous target but they could have done better and pulled off a stunning chase if one of their top-order batsmen played a long innings. Chris Gayle, Runako Morton, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul all made valuable contributions to keep West Indies in the game but got out just as they were beginning to dominate India. The pressure on the Indian bowlers, therefore, dissipated and left the lower-order batsmen with too much to do.
That West Indies were chasing a total of 340 was down to their bowlers indiscipline in line and length and their inability to fight back once the Indian batsmen raised the tempo. They will have to reduce the number of loose deliveries drastically to avoid another hiding on Sunday.
