West Indies tri-series 2013: Match 4 - India v/s WI: The Quick Flicks

The Queen’s Park Oval at Port of Spain is one of the loveliest cricketing grounds in the world. In the picturesque backdrop of Trinidad’s Northern Range, a battle for survival was fought by ODI World Cup winners India against the hosts. It was good to see the batting finally come good on a wicket quite conducive to seam, and the bowlers also joined the party to help their side eke out a comfortable win (via good old Duckworth-Lewis) with a bonus point to boot.

Here are the quick flicks from the game:

The Shikhar Dhawan Show:

Shikhar “Rathore” Dhawan delivered a blistering performance with the bat as he and opening partner Rohit Sharma constructed yet another century stand – their first of this series.

The Delhi southpaw was in a murderous mood as he took WI spinner Sunil Narine to the cleaners with two huge sixes and a four. His 69-run knock laid the platform for captain Kohli’s thunderous knock towards the end of the innings. Superb effort – you’d better not shave that moustache off now, Shikhar!

Imperious Kohli:

For once, the 24-year old stand-in skipper let his bat do the talking instead of the colourful language that he’s known to dish out when things don’t go his or the team’s way.

His ploy of promoting the luckless Suresh Raina ahead of the equally-struggling Murali Vijay did not work at all, and he was forced to watch as the plucky Dinesh Karthik fell victim to a howler from the umpire.

Shrugging off these setbacks, Kohli galloped towards his 14th ODI hundred in the company of Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin as he completely cut loose at the end, pushing India’s score over 300. He also marshalled his bowlers well and led by example in the field. There is hope yet for his transition from an angry “teen” to a responsible & mature leader.

Pacers Join the Fun:

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times - to win matches on wickets that favour swing and pace, Bhuvneshwar Kumar must be an automatic selection. Replacing the wayward Mohammad Shami Ahmed, Bhuvi utilized the conditions well to pick up three wickets.

Vidarbha pacer Umesh Yadav also had a good outing with three wickets, while the long-haired Ishant Sharma used the extra bounce well to grab a couple. Three seamers bowling in tandem is a good sign for India. I hope Kohli learns from his mistakes and gets Bhuvneshwar to play as many games as possible.

Roach and Narine – New “all-rounders” in the making?

Sunil Narine once again failed to take my advice on controlling the amount of gel he applies to his mohawk, but he did surprise one and all with his batting abilities. Kemar Roach, on the other hand, is known to use the long handle to good effect. The two added 58 runs off 56 balls for the ninth wicket, frustrating the Indians to no end.

While Roach can actually develop into a fine all-rounder, Narine is better off plying his trade as a strike bowler – as long as he is able to keep a check on the grease.

Pot calling the kettle black:

At the end of the game, CSK lynchpins Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja were arguing about a dropped catch of tailender Kemar Roach when the latter was bowling. From replays, it was pretty clear that Raina was slow to react, so SRJ’s annoyance was justified.

How the UP left-hander can even think about arguing with the “Sir” when he did absolutely nothing of note with the bat is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Get your head on straight Raina, and apologize to SRJ – that’s the only way you can save yourself from your recent bad patch.