4th ODI: West Indies v India at Port of Spain, 1 Jun 2002 Anand Vasu |
India innings:
West Indies innings: Pre-game: |
The first man to go was Virender Sehwag, in just the third ball of the match. Attempting to clear the infield on the leg side, Sehwag mis-hit Merv Dillon to Brian Lara at mid on. India were 1/1 and Sehwag was gone for a duck.
The hero of Barbados, Dinesh Mongia then pieced together a decent partnership with Ganguly. Letting the captain do most of the scoring, Mongia (13) kept one end up, taking India to 45/1 before making a fatal mistake. Attempting to force the pace, Mongia gave himself a bit of room and tried to force a full delivery through the off side. He missed and Cameron Cuffy hit.
Then came a slew of wickets. VVS Laxman (2) was run out by a sharp throw from Hooper and Yuvraj Singh (1) nicked Pedro Collins through to the keeper. India were in deep trouble at 56/4.
There was more trouble to follow for the visitors. A stroke-filled Ganguly innings, (39, 44 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) came to an end. With the fine leg up in the circle, the Indian skipper moved across his stumps and tried to glance the ball fine. Rapped on the pads and adjudged lbw to Colleymore, Ganguly could consider himself a touch unlucky. The ball appeared to be missing the off stump.
Mohammad Kaif dabbed the ball around for 12 but never looked assured at the crease. His 12 helped India add 20 to the score, reaching 86 before Kaif became Colleymore’s second victim, pulling the ball straight to Chris Gayle at square leg.
Ajit Agarkar did nothing to dent the West Indians’ morale, presenting Jacobs with a simple catch and Colleymore with his third wicket before he got off the mark.
Rahul Dravid batting at number six did his best to take India towards respectability, making 26, the second highest score of the Indian innings. He too was undone by a clever piece of bowling. Slipping in a quick one along with his tidy off-breaks, Hooper got through the Dravid as he played an ambitious cut shot.
Zaheer Khan, after batting sensibly enough for 7 from 16 balls, was once again cleaned up by Hooper.
With the last ball of the innings, the West Indies put the seal on a superb performance out in the field. Collins had Harbhajan Singh (6) caught behind and India were all out for 123.
It’s never easy to bowl in rain-shortened matches, but the West Indies did it to perfection. Colleymore, with 3/14 from his 5 overs was outstanding. Hooper’s 2/19 from 5 overs helped keep the pressure up and made life very difficult for the Indians.
There has been intermittent rain at Trinidad and this weather pattern is likely to continue through the day.
Sourav Ganguly’s run of luck with the toss continued. After rightly calling heads, the Indian captain elected to bat first. The Indian team however, is without the services of ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar who is nursing a sore shoulder.
VVS Laxman who enjoyed tremendous success in the recently concluded Test series replaces Tendulkar. Laxman led the batting chart for India with 474 runs at an average of 79.
The West Indies have brought back left-arm seamer Pedro Collins who was unwell with a ‘flu and missed the Barbados one-dayer.
A slight drizzle began after the toss was completed and then became a steady downpour. The start of play has been delayed as a result and we’re likely to have a shortened game later on.
India team: *SC Ganguly, V Sehwag, D Mongia, VVS Laxman, +R Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, AB Agarkar, Z Khan, T Yohannan, Harbhajan Singh.
West Indies team: CH Gayle, WW Hinds, RR Sarwan, BC Lara, *CL Hooper, S Chanderpaul, +RD Jacobs, M Dillon, CD Collymore, CE Cuffy, PT Collins.
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Date-stamped : 01 Jun2002 - 23:02