Rusty Indians crash to embarrassing 124-run defeat in the first one-dayer against visitors West Indies in Kochi; the only thing that went right for India in the game yesterday was the call during the toss
Mohammed Shami
Toss blunder
The only thing that went right for India in the game yesterday was the call during the toss. It all went on a downward spiral the moment skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to put the visitors into bat. He felt there would be dew during the evening, none of which existed.
Mohammed Shami bowls during the first ODI against West Indies yesterday. He finished with 4-66 in nine overs but should have been backed by his colleagues. PIC/PTI
Smith sets the tone
Opening the batting, Dwayne Smith set the tone for the visitors’ batting as he smashed a boundary off the second ball of the innings. He scored a brisk 46 off 45 balls before perishing to Ravindra Jadeja while attempting one shot too many.
Samuels’ broad bat
After being dropped for the home series against New Zealand and Bangladesh, man of the match Marlon Samuels made a fantastic comeback to the national side by scoring his sixth ton and added 163 runs for the fourth wicket with Denesh Ramdin (61). He finished with an unbeaten 126 off just 116 balls which included 11 boundaries and four sixes. He also finished with figures of two for 10 in his three overs.
Bowlers flop
The Indian bowling failed to back captain MS Dhoni’s decision to bowl first on a pitch that had no help for the bowlers. Barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-38), all the other bowlers conceded more than five runs per over. The spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja (1-58) and Amit Mishra (1-72) failed to impress. Mohammed Shami picked up four wickets but conceded 66 runs in his nine overs. The bowlers conceded 80 runs in the last 10 overs.
Batting collapse
Chasing a daunting 322, a lot was expected of India’s batting line-up. They began well adding 49 for the first wicket before Ajinkya Rahane (24) was run-out owing to a terrible communication error. Except for Shikhar Dhawan (68), the rest of the batting collapsed in a heap. Virat Kohli felt he was still in England as he was dismissed in an identical manner like in the English summer for two. Ambati Rayudu (13), Suresh Raina (0) and Dhoni (8) also failed to get going.
Wickets in a heap
None of the batsmen showed any kind of application on the wicket. From 82 for 2, India collapsed to 155-9 with the last wicket adding 42 runs.
ADVERTISEMENT
109
The number of runs scored by Virat Kohli in last eight ODIs at an average of 18.67
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
