India thrashes West Indies

If you thought India aren’t among the favorites going into the World Cup considering their record over the last year, think again. In their final warm-up match going into the tournament, they mauled the hosts West Indies by nine wickets to underline the fact that they can’t be written out.

The win, however, wasn’t as perfect as Indian fans would have liked it to be, considering that Virender Sehwag, a major concern because of his terrible performances over the course of months, failed again. Chasing just 86 to win, India lost Sehwag in the second over itself for a duck. The aggressive opener had failed even in the first warm-up match against the Netherlands.

Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik made sure that West Indies didn’t even sniff a chance of coming back into the match, reaching the target in the 19th over. The day, however, for sure belonged to the Indian bowlers. Bowling first after having lost the toss, India put West Indies in a spot of trouble right from the start, removing both the openers by the 5th over.

Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara seemed on the verge of getting the handle back to the hosts after the double setback, sharing a 39-run partnership, before West Indies collapsed spectacularly to the agile bowling of Munaf Patel, and to some extent Irfan Pathan who despite picking up wickets looked far from being the bowler he was during his first year of international cricket. Lara was the first to go, chipping a catch back to the bowler, Pathan. Sarwan fell the very next over to Munaf, edging a drive to Uthappa in the slips.

From then on, it was all downhill for West Indies, as one wicket was followed by another. Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels were dismissed without scoring by Munaf and Pathan respectively and newcomer Kieron Pollard made only two before edging a wide delivery from Pathan to the wicket-keeper. Munaf accounted for the wickets of Denesh Ramdin and Swayne Smith, to complete a tally for four for the match. Anil Kumble closed out the innings at 85, picking up Jerome Taylor on the fifth ball he bowled.

India went into the 13-a-side match without Sachin Tendulkar, who sat out due to a small niggle, so that he can be fit by the time India play their first group stage match in the World Cup against Bangladesh. Sourav Ganguly, who was expected to miss the match too after being hit on the thumb during practive, did end up playing after all, although he didn?t have to do much in the matc.

West Indies 85 all out in 25.5 overs
Irfan Pathan 3-25, Munaf Patel 4-10

India won by nine wickets

India 86-1 in 18.3 overs
Robin Uthappa 35*, Dinesh Karthik 38*