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India level series with
three-wicket win

Faisal Shariff

India vs West Indies: 6th ODI Jodhpur

Scorecard Graphical Analysis

A fine all-round performance from Sanjay Bangar won India the sixth game of the seven-match one-day series against the West Indies at Jodhpur on Thursday. With the scores level 3-3, the stage is set for an interesting final game on Sunday, at Vijayawada.

Chasing the 202 runs target, set by the visitors at the Barkatullah Khan stadium, India lost seven wickets as Bangar yet again finished off the game with a 38-ball 32. It was the sixth successive match won by the side chasing.

It was indeed a relief to watch a low-scoring one-day match after a long time, with some scope for the bowlers to make a mark. The belter tracks in the previous five games had marginalized the role of the bowlers, deeming the toss the vital cog in the final analysis of the games.

West Indies innings

The Indian bowlers reversed the trend in the one-day series against the West Indies with an outstanding performance, picking up the last five wickets for 18 runs.

The visitors were bowled out for 201 in the 47th over, with Shivnaraine Chanderpaul top-scoring with 58.

Rahul Dravid won the toss and asked the West Indies to take first strike, mentioning the fact that all five games of the series had been successfully chased.

Ajit Agarkar replaced Lakshmipathy Balaji and Reetinder Singh Sodhi was included after Harbhajan Singh sustained an injury. The West Indies played an unchanged side.

Chris Gayle got the first boundary of the innings in the sixth over off Agarkar. Both Agarkar and Srinath bowled a line short of length and kept the line in the right channel of the stumps.

Srinath offered some width to Gayle and saw the ball roll over the cover fence. Next ball, Gayle leaned back and caressed the ball past backward point to the fence.

Agarkar and Srinath set up Hinds by bowling at the stumps, offering no room on either side. Hinds managed to score a single run off the 28 balls he faced, struggling to clear the ball off the square. Agarkar finally induced the left-hander to chip a slower one into the outfield. Dinesh Mongia, getting his first game of the series in place of Sourav Ganguly, swallowed a simple catch.

Agarkar, fresh from his success against Delhi in the Ranji game for Mumbai, bowled a dream opening spell of six overs for 13 runs and the wicket of Hinds. It was the slowest start any of the opening pairs had gotten off to in the series, on a slow wicket.

Murali Kartik, the best bowler on show, led the spin attack in the absence of Harbhajan Singh. He bowled the 15th over and struck with his second ball. The ball pitched on leg and turned into Gayle, who shaping for the sweep shot, missed the line of the ball and was rapped on the pads in front of the wicket.

The West Indies were 43-2 after the 15-over mark. Marlon Samuels struggled against the military medium pacers from Sanjay Bangar and was cleaned up by Kartik for 3 off 28 balls. Looking to force the pace, Samuels misread the arm-ball and saw it ricochet off his pad on to the stumps.

The West Indies reached their half-century off 113 balls, as boundaries seemed elusive. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul kept rotating the strike on a slow track which assisted Kartik’s slow stuff.

The left-arm spinner got through Sarwan’s defences with another arm ball as the Windies lost their fourth wicket for 74, in the 25th over.

Dravid, standing in for Sourav Ganguly, gave a good account of his captaincy skills with astute bowling changes. He bowled Kartik and Bangar in tandem, slowing down the scoring-rate further.

Ricardo Powell, sent ahead of Carl Hooper, stepped on the scoring pedal, and with Chanderpaul picking the gaps and attacking in equal measure, the Windies innings gained momentum.

The visitors milked the perennial fifth bowler handicap, scoring 65 runs off the nine overs by Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia. Sehwag had Powell trapped in front after having dropped him at mid-wicket in the previous over off Mongia.

The third fifty of the Windies innings came off 39 balls, with the breezy Powell-Chanderpaul partnership. Chanderpaul was dropped by Dravid off Sehwag in the 36th over, three short of his half-century, which he duly brought up with a boundary. Seventy per cent of his runs were scored behind the wickets with deft deflections and nudges. Kartik finished his spell of ten overs for 36 runs and three wickets. He had 31 dot balls off the 60 deliveries he bowled – a measure of how difficult it was to get him away for runs.

Agarkar had Chanderpaul edging a simple catch to Dravid for 58 as the Windies lost wickets at regular intervals. (183-6)

Bangar came back for his second spell with a double-strike, fooling Hooper with a slower one that kicked at him, to offer an easy catch back to the bowler. Off the very next ball, he bowled Corey Colleymore as the Windies plunged to 193-8 in the 44th over. It was the first time in the series that the Windies had lost more than six wickets.

Like coach John Wright, Dravid’s role as captain was effective yet not conspicuous. Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who was the second all-rounder in the side, didn’t get a bowl, making it obvious that the team did not need two bowling all-rounders. He surprised the Windies batters by bowling Dinesh Mongia ahead of Yuvraj Singh. The fact that the Windies batters had had a look at Yuvraj made the move to bowl Dinesh Mongia seem smart.

The Windies were bowled out for 201 in the 47th over as the bowlers finally did the talking in the series.

India innings

India began their chase of a modest 202 on a slow track with a new opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia. Mongia yet again failed to make an impression, snicking a Drakes delivery, which was angled across, to keeper Ridley Jacobs, for 5.

With the ball not coming on to the bat, stroke-making was always going to be a difficult job. Sehwag executed a few strokes before offering a simple catch to Marlon Samuels at extra cover, off Vasbert Drakes. At 26 for 2 in the eighth over, the chase seemed anything but a certainty.

Rahul Dravid began with a flick for four off Drakes and kept finding the fence every over. VVS Laxman began to get the measure of the wicket by getting his first hit to the fence, but was dismissed off a spectacular catch. Chris Gayle plucked the ball while it was racing to the fence at point to see India lose their third wicket for 48 in the 13th over.

Yuvraj Singh joined Dravid to repair the innings after the quick fall of wickets. With a low total to chase, the asking rate never pressed the duo to take undue risks. Dravid – in prime form – smartly manoeuvered part-time spinners Samuels and Gayle and rotated the strike, something coach John Wright believes he has mastered better than any other batsman in the side. Yuvraj, on the other hand, cut and pulled the spinners, who bowled a very predictable line.

Unlike India, who had a specialist spinner in Murali Kartik and a consistent part-time offie in Sehwag, the West Indies struggled to get through the middle overs with the help of the tweakers.

Dravid and Yuvraj got to their respective half-centuries with minimum fuss as the match seemed to be going India’s way. The Yuvraj-Dravid partnership was one short of a hundred runs, when Yuvraj, for the third consecutive time in the series, chipped a full-length delivery straight to the fielder, Ricardo Powell, at square-leg.

India were 147 for 4 with a long batting line-up to get to the target of 202 in another 17 overs. Hooper sniffed his only chance of clawing back into the game and got his main bowler Drakes back into the attack. Dravid too chipped the ball for a simple catch to mid-wicket, having misread its pace.

Seamer Corey Collymore, who had an expensive first spell of three overs that cost 18 runs, recalibrated his bowling channels and triggered off a mini-collapse of sorts. In his very next over he had Reetinder Singh Sodhi play an outrageous slog high up in the air only to be caught by keeper Jacobs for one.

India had lost three wickets for a single run in three consecutive overs and the chase that seemed to be a gallop for the Indians suddenly stuttered. India were 148 for 6 with another 54 runs to get in 90 deliveries.

The calming effect of Bangar and the unending exuberance of Mohammad Kaif kept the game in balance with their quick singles and the ability to make the bowler pay for a loose delivery.

Powell dropped Bangar in the 40th over at mid-wicket, with India requiring 33 runs to win, off the bowling of Samuels. Had the catch been taken, the series could well have been decided right there.

Kaif departed tamely, caught by Powell – his third catch of the match – off Collins for 15. But with Bangar looking set to stay unbeaten in his third consecutive game, and Ajit Agarkar at the crease, the nerves in the Indian dressing room had settled. (187-7)

With the help of singles and twos, the duo crossed the target with more than three overs unused. Bangar, with 32 off 38 deliveries, led the path and truly deserved the man-of-the-match award that went to Agarkar for his figures of three for 24 off nine overs.

In fact, it was Bangar’s bowling figures of two for 39, a 38-ball 32 with the bat, and two catches that won India the game.