From 90/0, India gets bowled out for 181 in 2nd ODI against WI

BRIDGETOWN: Indian team management’s decision to rest skipper Rohit Sharma and premier batter Virat Kohli badly backfired as none of the World Cup hopefuls could cope with pace, bounce and turn against the West Indies, managing a dismal 181 in 40.5 overs in the rain-hit second ODI here on Saturday.

Losing five wickets for 23 runs in just 7.2 overs after opening stand of 90 between Ishan Kishan (55 off 55 balls) and Shubman Gill (34 off 49 balls) became India’s undoing.

The loss of momentum hurt India dearly but more than that, the rationale behind Rohit and Kohli’s forced break with only 10 more matches left before the big event, didn’t make much sense. Not to forget that the failures left more questions than answers.

While Kishan, who will not open during World Cup, consolidated his case for selection as second wicket-keeper (provided KL Rahul gets fit for World Cup) with a second successive half-century, the same couldn’t be said about Sanju Samson (9 off 19 balls) and Axar Patel (1 off 8 balls).

Promoted as Nos 3 and 4 to keep the left-right combination going, both players struggled not only against short-ball tactic employed by Jayden Seales, Alzarri Joseph and Romario Shepherd but also the grip, turn and bounce that spinners Gudakesh Motie and Yannic Cariah generated.

Kishan gave Motie the charge and got a six while Gill’s on-drive was a treat for the eyes even though he never looked completely in rhythm.

Once Motie gave the ball more air, a desperate Gill tried to loft him but was holed at long-off boundary.

Kishan, who had by then completed his 50 tried to square cut Shepherd when the ball bounced a tad more and the width wasn’t big enough but Alick Athanaze took a fine diving catch at point.

Skipper on the day Hardik Pandya (7 off 14 balls) was peppered with short balls and finally his patience gave off as he tried to pull Seals and Brandon King had an easy catch at mid-wicket.

Samson, who has a good chance of missing out on the final 15 berth, never looked in sync, having last played a competitive match on May 19 in the IPL.

He has never read leg-spinners well in his career (case in point Wanindu Hasaranga in Sri Lanka in 2021) and never looked comfortable against Cariah’s leg-breaks. When he got out, it was a leg-break and extra bounce and Samson couldn’t remove his bat from the line of the ball.

Brief scores: India 181 in 40.5 overs (I Kishan 55, S Gill 34, G Motie 3/36, R Shepherd 3/37) vs West Indies