Harjit Mehat
| cricket20
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy picked up four wickets to help restrict India to a total of 159-6 in their one off t20 International at the Queen's Park Oval in the Port of Spain.
Having won the toss, India were never able to dictate the game early on as the West Indies produced an impressive display with the ball to leave them facing a run chase of 160.
Subramaniam Badrinath led the way for India, scoring 43 runs but it was the contribution from Sammy early on in the innings which appeared to tilt the balance of power in favour of the West Indies.
The 27 year old struck four times to remove the Indian’s top order cheaply, leaving them 56-4 at the end of the 9th over to put the West Indies on top.
Despite the early loss of Shikhar Dhawan (5) in the 3rd over, Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli got the Indian’s innings off to a good start thanks to a 2nd wicket stand of 35.
With the partnership blossoming, Sammy struck to remove Kohli (15) at the end of the 7th over after the batsman picked out Danza Hyatt in the covers after he ballooned a slower delivery from the bowler high into the air.
Sammy struck again from the very next delivery to remove Patel (26) before he picked up the wicket of Indian stand in skipper Suresh Raina (2) at the end of the 9th over.
With the pressure building Badrinath and Rohit Sharma (26) shared a vital 5th wicket stand of 71 to bring the visitors back into the game before the pair were removed by Devendra Bishoo and Christopher Barnwell in consecutive overs.
Despite the quick loss, Harbhajan Singh (14) and Yusuf Pathan (15) added 24 runs during a quick fire 7th wicket stand from just 1.5 overs to leave the game evenly poised ahead of the West India’s run chase.
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