ICC CWC'19: India defeat West Indies by 125 runs at Old Trafford

Mumbai: India continued their unbeaten streak with a 125-run victory at Old Trafford that ended any slight hope West Indies had of reaching the World Cup semifinals.

It was a fifth win for Virat Kohli's lineup and a rebound in form following a close call against Afghanistan. It was a fifth loss in six games for the West Indies since a commanding opening win over Pakistan and it makes them the third team to drop out of playoffs contention.

The West Indies bowling attack did its job when Kemar Roach (3-36) took three wickets and skipper Jason Holder (2-33) snared two to contain India to 268-7 in 50 overs. Only Kohli, with 72 from 82 balls, and MS Dhoni, with an unbeaten 56, posted half-centuries for India.

But India paceman Mohammed Shami dismissed Chris Gayle (6) and No. 3 Shai Hope (5) in his opening spell and, after an innings building a 55-run partnership between Nicholas Pooran and Sunil Ambris, it all went downhill for West Indies.

Shami returned for two late wickets and finished with figures of 4-16 as West Indies was bowled out for 143 in the 35th over.

India moved into second place with 11 points, one behind defending champion Australia and will travel to Birmingham to play England on Sunday.

Overs:

2nd INNINGS:

34.2: Wicket! Shami takes his fourth wicket of the match as he dismisses Oshane Thomas off a sharp bouncer.

29.5: Wicket! Cottrell departs after playing a cameo of 10 runs. Chahal dismisses Cottrell as he gets his second of the match.

28.3: Wicket! Shami gets his third wicket as he gets the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer. Hetmyer departs after scoring 18.

26.2: Wicket! Its two in two for Jasprit Bumrah as he dismisses Fabian Allen for a duck.

26.1: Wicket! Braithwaite, the centurion from previous game departs cheaply on 1. MS Dhoni takes a stunner!

23.5: Wicket! Chahal exhibits his skill as he scalps the wicket of Windies skipper Jason Holder. Holder departs after scoring 6. West Indies in trouble!

20.2: Wicket! Windies lose their fourth wicket. Kuldeep Yadav dismisses Pooran to take his first wicket of the match. India continue to take wickets at regular intervals.

17.6: Wicket! Hardik Pandya breaks the partnership by trapping Nicholas Pooran. West Indies lose their third wicket as Pooran departs after scoring 31 runs off 40 balls.

6.5: Wicket! Shami strikes again! Shami bowls Shai Hope to give India a flying start. Shami could replicate his previous match's performance.

4.5: Wicket! Shami strikes early to dismiss Chris Gayle. Gayle floats the ball in the air to Kedar Jadhav.

1st INNINGS:

49.6: Dhoni's magnificent six takes his tally to 56, as India finish at 268/7.

48.5: Wicket! Shami goes back to the pavilion on a duck.

48.2: Wicket! Hardik Pandya tries to get a boundary but gets dismissed at 46. Just misses his half-century.

38.2: Wicket! Virat Kohli gets caught just after hitting a boundary. Heads back to the pavilion on 72.

28.5: Wicket! Jadhav dismissed at seven. The use of DRS has proven useful for the West Indies so far.

27.3: Virat Kohli scores 50.

26.1: Wicket! Shankar departs after scoring 14.

24.4: Kohli completes 20,000 international runs.

20.5: Wicket! Rahul gets bowled, dismissed by Holder

5.6: Wicket! Rohit caught by Shai Hope, goes out early at just 18 runs.

Toss: India win the toss, elect to bat first

Did you know:

Virat Kohli just 37 runs away from this massive world record

Of the eight times, India have met West Indies in world cup matches, India have won five games.

West Indies haven't beaten India in a World Cup game since 1992.

Rohit Sharma 2 sixes away from beating MS Dhoni’s record

When is the match?

The match is scheduled to start at 3 pm IST on Thursday. (June 27)

Where is the match?

The match will take place at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Stadium, Manchester.

Live Telecast:

Star India has acquired the rights of telecasting the tournament, and the matches will be telecast on various Star Sports Channels.

The match can be viewed live on Hotstar as well.

Pre-Match Analysis

India remains the only unbeaten team in the tournament after Pakistan defeated New Zealand on Wednesday. India faced a tough time after the last position Afghanistan ripped India’s openers and exposed the flaws in the team’s middle order.

India arguably has the strongest bowling team in the tournament with Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Kuldeep Yadav. The team is also spoilt for choice between pacers Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. India will, however, look to fix the issues with their batting side in today’s game, and it remains to see if the team will continue with Vijay Shankar going fourth in the batting order.

West Indies have had a bad campaign, winning just one of their six matches, and standing at number eight on the points table. Though the chance of them making it to the semi-finals are very, very slim, they certainly cannot be considered pushovers.

The team had perhaps their best performance of the tournament in their last game against then table-leaders New Zealand. An excellent performance by Carlos Brathwaite and Sheldon Cottrell almost won West Indies the game, who unfortunately lost by just five runs.

SQUADS:

India: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(C), Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni(WK), Dinesh Karthik, Lokesh Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal

West Indies: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Sunil Ambris, Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder (C), Nicholas Pooran (WK), Shai Hope (WK), Ashley Nurse, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas, Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell

Playing XI:

India: Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni(w), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

West Indies: Chris Gayle, Sunil Ambris, Shai Hope(w), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Kemar Roach, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas