World T20 warm-up: Rohit Sharma powers India past West Indies

ByArun S Kaimal,SportsCafe Editor

03/10/2016

Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten knock of 98 from 57 balls helped India register a convincing 45-run victory over West Indies in the World T20 warm-up match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday. After scoring 185/6 batting first, India bowled out the Windies for 140 with four balls to spare.

Brief Scores: India 185/6 in 20 overs (Rohit 98*(57), Yuvraj 31(20), Taylor 2/26) beat West Indies 140 in 19.2 overs (Gayle 20(11), Jadeja 2/26, Shami 2/30) by 45 runs

Chasing 186 for a victory, West Indies got off to a terrific start with Johnson Charles smashing Ashwin for two back-to-back sixes in the opening over. Gayle made it even better in the next over by dishing out the same treatment to Harbhajan Singh as West Indies raced off to 26 runs in two overs. With the spinners going for runs, Dhoni brought on Mohammed Shami in an attempt to curtail the run flow.

But for Gayle, fast and spin was of no difference as he sent the bowler, who was returning from a hamstring injury for two boundaries. However, Jasprit Bumrah’s slingy action brought down the fall of the lanky left-hander as a straight ball cleaned him up to bring some relief to India. Charles followed his opening partner shortly with Mohammed Shami producing an edge off his bat to give Dhoni behind the gloves a catch.

With both Gayle and Charles back in the hut, the run rate also took a nose dive with Samuels and Ramdin struggling for runs. Jadeja removed Ramdin and Samuels in quick succession to finish off all the hopes of a West Indies victory by the 12th over. Pawan Negi, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami finished off the remaining batsmen to help India register a 45-run victory.

Earlier in the day, with the match being a warm-up, both teams decided to do away with the toss and India batted first on the wicket at the Eden Gardens after a mutually agreed decision. India opened with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, and the duo looked in good nick in the initial overs carefully negotiating Andre Russell and Jerome Taylor. Dhawan, who scored 60 off 44 balls in the Asia Cup final, was the first to depart for India after being cleaned up by the left-arm spin from Sulieman Benn.

Rahane arrived next instead of Virat Kohli, in search of a good knock to put his name up for the reckoning for a place in the playing XI. But the Mumbai cricketer failed miserably as he jumped out of the crease in search of some quick runs off a Sulieman Benn delivery, only to see Denesh Ramdin behind the stumps knocking the bails off.

With the team in a spot of bother at 56/2 in 8.2 overs, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma joined hands to form an 89-run partnership for the fourth wicket. The swashbuckling left-hander smashed 31 off 20 balls including one maximum and three boundaries to guide the team out of the crisis. Rohit Sharma, who started slowly by scoring just 25 off his first 28 balls, upped the ante once Ashley Nurse came into the attack in the ninth over and took the right arm off-spinner to the cleaners by smashing him for a six and two boundaries in the over.

The Mumbai cricketer continued his carnage as India scored 67 runs in the next four overs to put the side in a brilliant position with five overs remaining in the game. Yuvraj and Ravindra Jadeja departed in quick succession, but Rohit kept the other end ticking as India finished at 185/6 at the end of 20 overs. Similar to his innings in the opening match of the Asia Cup against Bangladesh, Rohit scored at a strike rate of more than 200 in the second half of innings by picking up 73 off 29 balls to finish just two runs short of a century.

India will next face South Africa in the second warm-up match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on March 12.

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