In a do-or-die match of super eight round, West Indies defeated India by 14 runs. Batting first, West Indies put on 169 runs on the board losing 6 wickets, while India could only reach at 155 after 20 overs losing 9 wickets. With this defeat, India’s semi final hope is now almost finished.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni sent West Indies to bat first after winning the toss. However, Indian bowlers could not show much dominance against the Caribbean batsmen. Chris Gayle played a blistering innings of 98 runs off just 66 balls to guide West Indies to a fighting total of 169 runs.
Gayle along with opener Chanderpaul put on 80 runs on the board for the opening partnership and that was the solid platform which was capitalized by the next batsmen. Chanderpul scored 23 runs. West Indies could get to reach that total as Sammy and Pollard chipped in 19 and 17 runs respectively.
Among the Indian bowlers, only Nehra and Harbhajan Singh could show some resistance against mighty Gayle. Nehra picked up 3 wickets for 35, while Harbhajan was wicketless, but conceded only 16 runs off his 4 overs.
India did not have a very good start in their innings as they lost 3 wickets at 38 runs. Two openers Gambhir and Vijay once again failed to score, while Rohit Sharma, who played an excellent innings against Australia, fell only for 5 runs. Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan continued their poor form in the tournament as they scored only 12 and 17 runs respectively.
However, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni lit up the Indian hope in the middle of the innings, but that was enough as they failed to carry on their innings. Raina became the only dismissal of Gayle before scoring 32 runs off 25 balls. Dhoni scored 29 from 18 balls, but his departure in the 19th over ensured India demise in the game.
All the West Indies bowlers contributed well to their victory. In fact, all of the 7 bowlers used in the Indian innings picked up 1 wicket each, except Roach who got 2 wickets.
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