Kohli, Shami ensure India remain unbeaten

India 268 for 7 (Kohli 72, Dhoni 56*, Rahul 48, Hardik 46, Roach 3-36, Holder 2-33, Cottrell 2-50) beat West Indies 143 all out (Shami 4-16, Bumrah 2-9, Chahal 2-39) by 125 runs

It was another clinical performance from an India team that has looked unbeatable this ICC World Cup as they defeated West Indies by 125-runs at Manchester on Thursday.

Fifties from captain Virat Kohli and wicket-keeper MS Dhoni, coupled with some excellent bowling from Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, who took six wickets between them, ensured that the Windies lost big and as a result were knocked out of the tournament.

1st Innings

India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma early, to a controversial DRS decision by third umpire Michael Gough, who overturned the not out decision by the on field umpire, although there didn’t seem to be conclusive evidence to do so.

KL Rahul and Kohli then took the team total towards a hundred and as Rahul was reaching his half-century but then Windies captain Jason Holder bowled a beautiful delivery to have Rahul bowled for 48.

The inexperienced duo of Vijay Shankar and Kedar Jadhav then departed without adding much to the score as Kemar Roach bowled with fire and Windies were right back in the match with India at 140/4.

With Kohli holding one end up, he found the experienced Dhoni form an important partnership with him to take the score to 180 as Kohli reached his half century and also became the fastest to 20,000 international run in just 417 innings; he was finally dismissed after scoring 72.

Dhoni, who got a chance when Shai Hope made a mess of two stumping opportunities teamed up with Hardik Pandya to up the scoring rate and they formed a 70-run partnership and took the score to 250 before Pandya was out for 46 off 38 balls.

Dhoni stayed till the end to take India upto 268/7 as he score 56 off 61 in what was a challenging pitch.

2nd Innings

In reply, the Indian opening bowlers Shami and Bumrah had the Windies in all sorts of trouble as the experienced Chris Gayle and in-form Shai Hope were dismissed for single figures with the score being 16/2.

Sunil Ambris and Nicholas Pooran then formed a partnership of 55-runs to breath life back into the innings as Ambris scored 31 and Pooran scored 28.

But then, Ambris was out LBW to Pandya, and that triggered a big collapse as Windies lost their last eight wickets for just 72 runs and were all-out for 143 in 43.2 overs.

More than anything, it was excellent bowling from Bumrah (6-1-9-2) and Shami (6.2-0-16-4) as they were backed up equally excellently by Kuldeep Yadav (9-1-35-1) and Yuzvendra Chahal (7-0-39-2).

Points Table

The win takes India up to second spot with 11 points from just six games with Australia on top with 12 points from seven games. 

New Zealand, following their loss to Pakistan are now third with 11 points from seven games but a poorer net run-rate than India and England are hanging on to fourth spot with eight points from seven games.

But that could change as Sri Lanka (7th) face South Africa (9th) and a big win could take them up to fourth spot.

Bangladesh and Pakistan remain placed fifth and sixth with seven points from seven games each, separated by net run-rate.

Key Stats

Virat Kohli’s 417 innings to reach 20,000 international runs is 36 innings’ quicker than the ones that had the record previously - Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, who both took 453 innings’ to reach the landmark.   

Kuldeep Yadav and Jaspreet are the two most economical bowlers with economies of 4.40 and 4.45 respectively this tournament among bowlers that have bowled 40-plus overs.