Indian spinners tie down West Indies to 129/7

Mirpur (Bangladesh), March 23 (IANS) Indian spinners put on another sterling show to restrict defending champions West Indies to 129 for seven in 20 overs in an ICC World Twenty20 Group 2 match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here Sunday.

Having restricted Pakistan to 130 for seven in the opening match, the trio of Ravindra Jadeja (3/48), Amit Mishra (2/18) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/24) did well to tie down the West Indies big hitters. Chris Gayle was the top scorer with 34 while Lendl Simmons made 27.

Mishra, who was Man of the Match against Pakistan, was most miserly of the lot giving away just 18 runs in his four overs while Jadeja got some stick from Simmons but had the last laugh as he not only dismissed the batsmen but also picked up crucial wickets of Darren Sammy (11) and Andre Russell (7).

Put in by India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the West Indies batsmen made a slow start scoring five runs from the first three overs and couldn’t recover from it.

Gayle tried to break the shackles hitting one four and two sixes in his 33-ball innings. He would have been back early in the innings had Yuvraj Singh not dropped a sitter off Mishra when the southpaw was on 19. Gayle was finally run out by a fine piece of fielding from Mohammad Shami.

Marlon Samuels (18) was foxed by a classical leg spinner’s delivery from Mishra to be beaten in flight and Dhoni whipped off the bails.

Simmons tried to increase the run rate with his 22-ball 27 hitting one four and a six but was dismissed by Jadeja with Shikhar Dhawan fumbling to take the catch at backward point.