India clinches ODI series 2-0
India skipper Virat Kohli, ably supported by Shreyas Iyer, helps India beat West Indies by six wickets (DLS) at the Port of Spain in Trinidad . India therefore, clinches the three-match ODI series 2-0.
Virat Kohli scores his 43rd ODI century | IND 237/4 after 31 overs
India now needs 18 runs off 24 balls. Easy task, one would say!
Shreyas Iyer departs for 65 | IND 212/4 after 28.2 overs
Shreyas Iyer after putting in the hard yards has been made to walk, courtesy the softest of dismissals. The timing on the shot was perfect but it did not carry enough in it to clear the long-off fielder. Holder had an easy task at hand.
200 runs for India and a 100 run-partnership for Kohli-Iyer | IND 200/3 after 26.1 overs
India's 200 runs come up as Shreyas Iyer saunters to complete a single. The duo have also stitched together a partnership of 108 runs now.
Glorious! | IND 173/3 after 23 overs
Shreyas Iyer, take a bow! He is in the form of his life, constantly knocking the doors of the number four spot. A lofted straight drive over long-on. As straight as it can possibly get. BEAUTIFUL!
Another 50 partnership | IND 142/3 after 20 overs
It is Kohli and Iyer now. The two batsmen have combined well to keep the Windies bowlers at bay.
Shreyas Iyer slams a maximum as the ball disappears, quite literally | IND 133/3 after 19 overs
Shreyas Iyer shows his class hammering two back-to-back sixes, the first of which gets stuck on the roof of the Media Centre. We will have a new ball, ladies and gents!
Kohli gets his 55th ODI fifty | IND 118/3 after 18 overs
Virat Kohli takes a single to reach his half-century off 48 balls.
Pant commits the same blunder, AGAIN | IND 92/3 after 12.4 overs
Rishabh Pant at it yet again! Tries to go for a big shot off the very first ball and throws away his wicket in a manner which looked like an action replay of the last wicket. Allen gets to do the thigh-five a second time.
Allen gets rid of Dhawan | IND 91/2 after 12.2 overs
Keemo Paul takes a pretty good catch, running backwards from the inner ring. Fabian Allen, meanwhile celebrates with a thigh-five. Direct message to Dhawan, is it?
50-run partnership up for Kohli and Dhawan in 42 balls | IND 76/1 after 9.1 overs
India skipper Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan have both looked energetic today, having stitched together fifty runs now for the second wicket.
Kohli and Dhawan continue the charge | IND 58/1 after 7 overs
What a beauty! A graceful extra cover drive from Virat Kohli off a cutter from Roach was a treat to watch. Two boundaries from the seventh over takes the total to 58.
Rohit Sharma run out! | IND 25/1 after 2.4 overs
Rohit run out! A moment of hesitation between the two openers sees Rohit step way out of the crease at the non-striker's end. Allen, the fielder wide of backward point, was quick on his feet to find the woodwork. A dive doesn't help.
India openers off to confident start | IND 21/0 after 2 overs
The Indian openers - Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan - are off to a confident start. 11 runs come from the West Indian skipper's over after Dhawan pummels Holder for two boundaries.
INNINGS BREAK
West Indies sets a competitive target for Kohli and Co. after Brathwaite falls in the final over | WI 240/7 after 35 overs
Carlos Brathwaite looks to go for a big shot but falters as he ends up skying that. Rishabh Pant keeps his eyes on the ball and in the end it was an easy task for the young wicketkeeper.
West Indies sets a target of 255 (DLS). Is that a bit too much for India to get in 35 overs?
Captain to captain! | WI 221/6 after 32.5 overs
Where was Jason Holder planning to go with that? The ball was right in the Windies skipper's zone and if he would have got enough power onto it, it would have cleared the ropes. The elevation wasn't enough as well, as Virat Kohli pouched an easy one at long-on.
Found the safe hands of Manish Pandey | WI 211/4 after 30.1 overs
Nicholas Pooran takes the long walk back to the pavilion after making 30 off 16 balls. The batsman swings, but clearly not hard enough to clear the fielder stationed at long-on.
Pooran switching gears?| WI 211/4 after 30 overs
Nicholas Pooran freeing his arms now, as he goes after Ravindra Jadeja. Courtesy two mammoth sixes in that over, 17 runs have been added to the scoreboard.
Another wicket down! | WI 171/4 after 25.4 overs
It is Shai Hope this time, who gets his furniture rattled. Jadeja gets rid of him with the extra pace on that delivery. Jadeja keeps it straight and simple, but Hope looked clueless.
Hetmyer falls | WI 171/3 after 24.5 overs
And BOWLED! Shami clips the top of off-stump. A change of pace lures Hetmyer to hit him over mid-wicket and the off-cutter does the trick. The left-hander has missed the line of the ball completely.
Shami starts proceedings, Hope and Hetmyer continue| WI 164/2 after 23 overs
A more or less decent over from Shami, six runs come from it. The pacer sticks to tighter and fuller channels, not allowing the batsmen to go after him.
Play to resume, match reduced to 35-overs per side|12:00 AM IST
Well, we have good news! The match has been reduced to 35-overs a side.
Five bowlers can bowl seven overs each. The second powerplay will be till the 28th over and the third till 35th. The innings break will be of 20 minutes.
IT IS STILL RAINING! | 11:32 PM IST
This is frustrating now...
UPDATE 11:36 PM: If Windies doesn't bat, the 20-over DLS target for India will be 194. The umpires are out for an inspection.
Raining cats and dogs, players leave the field in a hurry | 11:02 IST
The showers are quite heavy now as Kohli and Co. have stopped their game of soccer midway to rush back to the dressing room.
Covers back on, it is pelting down now | 10:51 PM IST
The Indian team is meanwhile enjoying a game of football on the ground.
Rains stop, groundsmen start to remove covers | 10:09 PM IST
The game is likely to resume soon. The West Indies despite slowing down the gameplay, after losing both its openers, still has a scoring rate of 7 RPO. With the overs reduced, it might culminate into a big target for Kohli's men, when they walk out to bat.
UPDATE 10:38 PM IST: Match to resume in seven minutes from now.
BCCI bears bad news!| 09:40 PM IST
We will be losing overs for sure now!
Rain stops, covers coming off|09:18 PM IST
News from the centre: The play will resume in ten minutes from now. We will not be losing any overs.
UPDATE 09:28 PM IST: But... WAIT! It is pouring, again. And it has gotten heavier!
Rain stops play again| WI 158/2 after 22 overs|09:02 PM IST
The groundsmen bring in the covers. How many rain stoppages have we seen in this series already?
Shai Hope to break free? | WI 146/2 after 19 overs
Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav operating in tandem now. The crowd is bound to expect a lot from Hope, who averages 80 vs spin in ODIs. Only three runs come from the 19th over.
Match slows down after openers fall| WI 134/2 after 15 overs
That is what Chris Gayle is capable of doing. Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope are the new men in and they would take some time to settle down. Meanwhile, Harsha Bhogle has tweeted:
Chris Gayle, in all probability, departs, for the last time!|WI 121/2 after 11.4 overs
A blinder by Kohli at mid-off puts an end to a wonderful show, and by the looks of it, this was the last innings from the Universe Boss (72 off 41 balls). The crowd is up on its feet, applauding, and all the Indian players walk up to the big man to congratulate him. He has surely given us an innings to remember him by.
Lewis walks!| WI 115/1 after 10.5 overs
And there's the breakthrough! Skipper Kohli brings in Yuzvendra Chahal and the leg-spinner does exactly what was asked of him.
A lofted delivery sees Lewis try to go for a maximum with a slog sweep, but the ball finds the edge. Shikhar Dhawan takes one in the deep comfortably.
Merciless! |WI 103/0 after 9.1 overs
As the Windies notch triple digits, the Universe Boss has reached his half-century off just 30 balls. The signature celebration is here guys: places his helmet on top of the handle of his bat and raises it to the crowd.
The assault continues|WI 77/0 after 8 overs
Khaleel Ahmed being dispatched to all corners of the park as well. 16 runs come from his first over. Gayle 36* (25), Lewis 38* (24)
Gayle and Lewis making merry| WI 49/0 after 6 overs
The openers are making merry on a benign pitch. This is the highest opening partnership in this series (in the last seven games). 20 runs have come from the last Shami over. The over timeline reads: 6,0,4,2,4,4
Up, up and away!| WI 29/0 after 5 overs
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, right in the blockhole, with the knuckle ball, after he gets hit for two back-to-back boundaries by Evin Lewis.
But a ball later, a fuller one from Bhuvneshwar can be seen disappearing into the stands. An expensive over this. 16 runs coming from it.
WI 13/0 after 4 overs
Shami bags a maiden now. The pacer has been mixing it up well, switching between shorter ones and the deliveries hitting the surface at a much fuller length.
Match resumes|07:26 PM IST
Shami to continue.
Chris Gayle smashes another boundary, over mid-wicket, off the last delivery to take the team total to 12/0 from two overs.
Covers come off, match to resume soon| 07:21 PM IST
The covers have come off and the umpires are walking out to the middle for a brief inspection. They signal Virat Kohli, asking him to step out with the team.
Rain stops play| WI 8/0 after 1.3 overs
The surface is mostly dry, with the humidity around 90%. Bhuvneshwar has been sent in to extract some early movement from the pitch with the new ball. The first over is a maiden.
A front-foot no ball in the second over from Mohammed Shami off the very second delivery. And the big man has delivered off the free hit! An 82-metre maximum from Chris Gayle.
But what is this? A slight drizzle has set in already, as was predicted. And as I type, it is pelting down now.
Chris Gayle 301
Chris Gayle has changed his shirt number, corresponding with the number of ODIs he has featured in now.
Will the change in number bring about a change in fortunes as well? He has scored 4 and 11 in this series thus far. Will he be able to end things on a high?
Five minutes to go, ladies and gentlemen! How excited are you all?
Will West Indies manage to pull off a victory and level the series here or will it be the Men in Blue who will make it 2-0?
As we all wait for the action to begin at the Port of Spain, let us have a look at how the CVs of the six India head coach hopefuls stack up here ! Who do you think will take on from Shastri? Or will we see Shastri 2.0?
TEAMS (PLAYING XI)
West Indies : Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Roston Chase, Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach
India : Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, K Khaleel Ahmed
TOSS UPDATE:Well, the captains are out on the field.
Heads is the call from Virat Kohli, and, for the first time in this tour, the India skipper has lost the toss.
West Indies to bat first.
Weather update \ 06:30 PM IST
Bad news! According to Accuweather , rain might play spoilsport, yet again. There are high chances of heavy showers during the earlier hours of the day. It is also being said that the downpour might go on till late afternoon.
However, the skies are expected to clear out by late afternoon.
MATCH PREVIEW
Dhawan under pressure as India eyes series win
Opener Shikhar Dhawan would be desperate for a big knock after four consecutive failures as India are eyeing another series victory when they clash with the West Indies in the third and final ODI here on Wednesday.
Troubled by in-coming deliveries, twice Dhawan lost his wicket to pacer Sheldon Cottrell.
Since Dhawan is not part of the Test squad, the Delhi left-hander would like to finish the Caribbean assignment on a high.
There is another mini-battle brewing in the Indian batting line-up for the number four slot with Shreyas Iyer putting tremendous pressure on Rishabh Pant.
Pant has enjoyed the backing of the team management, especially skipper Virat Kohli but his repeated failures and Iyer’s 68-ball 71-run knock in the second ODI has made things different.
Pant’s temperament is cause of concern as he threw away his wicket on numerous occasions. Any team would prefer a level-headed batsman for that crucial position and by his knock on Sunday, Iyer has made a strong case for himself.
Even legendary Sunil Gavaskar has vouched for Iyer for the number flour slot. He wants Pant to drop down to number five as he feels the wicketkeeper batsman is best suited to provide the late impetus.
Elsewhere on the batting front, Kohli would look to carry on with his good batting form after hitting a brilliant 120 off 125 balls in the second ODI.
Kohli anchored India’s innings in Iyer’s company after openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were dismissed cheaply.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the star for India with the ball in the last match with impressive figures of 4 for 31 from eight overs and the pacer would look to carry on his fine form in the coming matches of the tour.
Bhuvneshwar’s pace colleague Mohammed Shami (2/39) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/59) also chipped in wickets but the left-arm spinner went for some runs and he would be hoping for better display in terms of economy rate.
Although teams don’t prefer changing their winning combinations, Kohli might give Navdeep Saini a run in the last ODI by resting Shami.
West Indies, on the other hand, would be desperate to save the series with a win.
But for that to happen, West Indies’ batting unit will have to take more responsibility. It’s time talents like Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran rise up to the occasion for West Indies cricket to thrive.
After the final ODI, the two teams will battle in a two-match Test series, starting August 22 at North Sound, Antigua.
The match can be streamed live on SonyLIV and the SonyLIV app.
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