 Who have thought that West Indies will reach as closer as 319 runs in reply to India 339/6? At end of 42nd Over of West Indian innings the match almost looks like in the hands of India with West Indies requiring another 75 runs in the last 8 overs with three wickets in hand.
But West Indies wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Ramdin (29 runs of 26 balls) and D.Bernard (19 runs of 20 balls) kept West Indies in hunt with 44 runs partnership of just 32 balls for the eighth wicket before comeback man Ashish Nehra removed Bernard to bring India right back into the game. He also removed Dinesh Ramdin to close the match for India.
No body thoughts that West Indies lower order batsman will fight till the end. Despite of loosing wickets at regular Interval they were always ahead of India scores. But in the end it was Yuvraj inning that made the difference. With help of Yuvraj Singh brilliance India collected 62 runs without loosing a wicket in batting powerplay on the other hand West Indies manage 36 runs for the lost of three wickets in their batting powerplay and in the end this was the vital difference between two teams.
Earlier after electing to bat first India were struggling at 32/2in the 8th over. Once again Indian top orders were tested by short pitch stuff from West Indies pace attack. After giving India a steady start opener Gautam Gambhir (13 runs of 14 balls) and Rohit Sharma (4 runs of 12 balls) got out by short pitch delivery.
Yuvraj Singh joined D.Karthik to rebuild the innings from 32 for 2. His approach made up for the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina and allayed fears of weakness in the batting order. Yuvraj revived the Indian innings by adding 135 with Karthik for the third wicket and then 86 runs in just 57balls with Captain M.S.Dhoni(41 runs of 46balls), both partnership that laid the platform for only the second ODI total in excess of 300 in Jamaica.
In the end Yusuf Pathan (40 runs of 38balls) and Harbhajan Singh (19 runs of 13balls) played well to get pass India total close to350 runs mark.
Yuvraj Singh was declared Player of the Match for his blistering knock of 131 runs of just 102 balls.
Match Summary (India won by 20 Runs)
India – 339/6 in 50 Overs
Yuvraj Singh- 131 Dinesh Karthik– 67
D. Bravo– 10-0-66-2 D.Bernard- 8-0-50-1
West Indies– 319/10 in 48.1 Overs
S.Chanderpaul- 63 R.Srawan– 45
Ashish Nehra– 7.1-0-49-3 Yusuf Pathan- 8-0-56-3
India v West Indies 1st ODI Highlights
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