India vs West Indies, 4th ODI: 3 reasons why West Indies lost the match
India completed a comprehensive win over Windies today in the fourth ODI played at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. The mammoth 224-run win hands the home team 2-1 advantage in the five-match series with one game to go. After the flurry of boundaries from Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu in the first innings, Indian bowlers allowed no chance of a comeback to the Caribbean team.
Captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first on the flat Mumbai track. Indian team strengthened its batting after the debacle in the last match and added Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja to the playing XI in place of Rishabh Pant and Yuzvendra Chahal. Windies team gave an opportunity to Keemo Paul and dropped Obed McCoy from the side.
The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan made a confident start and set the platform for a big total with the stand of 71 runs in 11.5 overs. Windies managed to send back both Dhawan and Kohli inside the first 17 overs but achieved little success after that. Rohit Sharma, who looked set for his fourth double century in ODIs, was dismissed on 162 (137). Batting at number four, Ambati Rayudu 100 (81) stitched a 211-run partnership with Rohit to help India reach the final total of 377/5 in 50 overs.
Facing the mountain of runs, Windies batting lineup bottled under the pressure. Their top three batsmen walked back to the pavilion even before the first six overs were completed. Kieron Powell and Shai Hope were run out while the left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed struck three quick blows to reduce the touring side to 56/6. Captain Jason Holder held the fort alone with a knock of 54 and soothed the pain of the Caribbean team’s devastating defeat.
Here are three reasons for Windies’ gigantic loss today:
#3 Failure to dislodge India’s Top Three
It is no secret that the Indian batting lineup heavily relies on the shoulders of their top-three batsmen. While Virat Kohli was absent from the Asia Cup, it was the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma that usually helped India achieve the win. With Virat Kohli back, we have seen how these three have been churning out runs regularly.
For Windies to upset India’s plans when batting first, it was imperative for them to dislodge Dhawan-Sharma-Kohli at the earliest. Allowing any one of them to settle is an assurance of your bowling unit getting murdered. Jason Holder and men did complete two-thirds of the task but fell victim to the Hitman’s hammer.
After a good opening stand, Shikhar Dhawan fell for 38 as Keemo Paul forced him into a false shot. Roach removed Kohli by forcing him to play at an outside off-stump delivery. The Windies bowlers could not send back Rohit Sharma though and became a mute spectator to the Mumbaikar’s glorious batting. Rohit’s 162 was the top-score of the match and did enough to rule out Windies out of the challenge.