The West Indies lost to India yesterday but gave the thousands of fans at the Queen's Park Oval, something to look forward to in the future. The inexperienced West Indies lost to a very young India team by 16 runs in their lone T20 clash but again, there were visible signs that the team was going places.
Gone was that defeated attitude, as they fought well and in the end when they failed, the crowd showed their appreciation as they look forward to better days. Scores: India 159/6 (20overs) vs West Indies 143/5 (20overs). Just as the heads began to drop in despair at the packed Oval, youngsters Christopher Barnwell and Danza Hyatt propped them up with a lively unbeaten 50-run partnership off just 22 balls. With the run rate required being 16 from the last four overs, Barnwell went crazy and smashed everything out of sight. He remained unbeaten on 34 off 16 balls with two fours and three sixes. Hyatt followed suit and finished on 14 off seven balls with one four and a six.
The West Indies chasing 160 runs for victory from 20 overs always found the going tough on a pitch offering generous spin. Costly umpiring mistakes by Trinidadian Petro Nero also did not help. He gave Lendl Simmons caught behind when replays showed he had clearly missed the ball. Also towards the end of the Indian innings he gave eventual man of the match Subramanian Badrinath not out, when replays showed he was stumped by Andre Fletcher. The West Indies lost Simmons and Fletcher early in the piece and it took a careful rearguard partnership of 66 from 11.1 overs by Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels to repair the damage. The Indian spinners were cueing up to bowl on this pitch and they were very successful. Just when they started to up the tempo, Bravo and Samuels fell. Bravo scored 41 off 41 balls with five fours and Samuels made 27 off 29 balls with three fours. From that point it was always going to be difficult and at the end of the day, all was not lost for the home team.
Earlier, West Indies skipper Darren Sammy won the toss and sent India in to bat and waited on no one to vindicate his decision. Bowling a decent line and length and varying his pace admirably, Sammy showed his charges how do it. He grabbed four top order wickets and India were in deep strife at 56 for four at the end of his work. However, while the St Lucian would have been pleased to look up on the scoreboard and see 4/16 to his name, what was to follow would have disappointed him massively.
The rest of the bowlers, barring Ashely Nurse erred in line and length and the talented Rohit Sharma and Subramaniam Badrinath made hay while the sun came out. They took the score to 127 before Sharma left for 26 made off 23 balls with two sixes. Yusuf Pathan then stepped in and looked a man in a hurry. Badrinath fell at 134 for a well-played 43 off 37 balls with five fours and Pathan and Harbhajan Singh, finished strongly for the visitors. Pathan finished 15 not out off six balls with two sixes and Singh finished on the same score off seven balls with one six and a four.
Scoreboard
West Indies vs India
India inns
P Patel c Samuels b Sammy 26
S Dhawan c Fletcher b Sammy 5
V Kohli c Hyatt b Sammy 14
S Raina c Barnwell b Sammy 2
S Badrinath c Fletcher b Bishoo 43
R Sharma b Barnwell 26
Y Pathan not out 15
H Singh not out 15
Extras: (lb1, w10, nb2) 13
Total: 6 wkts (20ovs) 159
Fall of wkts: 13, 48, 48, 56, 127, 134.
Bowling: R Rampaul 4-0-38-0 (1nb, 3w), A Russell 2-0-26-0 (1nb), D Sammy 4-0-16-4, A Nurse 4-0-23-0, D Bishoo 4-0-31-1, C Barnwell 2-0-24-1.
West Indies inns
L Simmons c Kohli b Ashwin 9
A Fletcher b Patel 11
DM Bravo b Harbhajan 41
M Samuels c Patel b Harbhajan 27
D Hyatt not out 14
D Sammy c Kohli b Kumar 0
C Barnwell not out 34
Extras: (lb4, w3) 7
Total: for 5 wkts (20ovs) 143
Fall of wkts: 22, 22, 88, 92, 93.
Bowling: P Kumar 4-1-27-1, H Singh 4-0-25-2 (2w), R Ashwin 4-0-30-1, M MPatel 4-0-35-1, Y Pathan 4-0-22-0.
Result: India wins by 16 runs.
Man-of-match: Subramaniam Badrinath.
