It was birthday boy Kemar Roach who hit the winning runs for West Indies as the hosts beat India in a nail-biting contest by just one wicket at Sabina Park on Sunday. There were some spectacular performances from Johnson Charles and Darren Bravo which setup the match beautifully for Windies but some brilliant bowling by Umesh Yadav and Ravi Ashwin brought India back into the game, which Windies won in the 48th over.

Earlier some fine batting from Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina allowed India to post a respectable total of 229 runs in the 50 overs they batted.

Here we bring to you the hits and flops from the match between India and West Indies

HITS

Johnson Charles: Charles was absolutely stunning and it was some clean hitting by him which got his team over the line. He scored 97 runs off just 98 balls which were studded with eight fours and four sixes. H added 116 runs with Darren Bravo which gave them an ideal platform to win this thrilling encounter.

Umesh Yadav: Yadav was brilliant in the first spell that he bowled as he picked up the wicket of Devon Smith and Chris Gayle which gave India a chance to fdefend a meagre total. He was not so impressive in his second spell but he got the most important wicket of Charles in his eighth over with the widish delivery that he bowled.

Kemar Roach: Kemar Roach bowled magnificently in the first spell and gave away just 13 runs in his first six overs. His knack of getting early wickets paid him some god dividends as he got Dhawan out. Later, he came hard on Raina with his short balls and finally got him out of a widish delivery. He kept his nerve to steal the match for his team as he scored 14 runs off 32 balls that he faced.

Rohit Sharma: Sharma did a fine job but couldn’t convert his 60 runs to a big hundred. He took the unnecessary risk and paid a heavy price for that. He needs to keep a price on his wicket, especially when the wicket is not easy to bat on and has already stayed there for quite a sometime.

Darren Sammy: Sammy was once again brilliant with the ball and gave away just 41 runs and picked up the wicket of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma at crucial juncture of the match. In the batting, he played a nice little cameo of 29 runs which ensured the victory for his team.

Suresh Raina: Raina batted sensibly when he was bombarded with the short balls by the West Indies pace attack. He scored 44 runs off 55 balls and was looking quite good to finish off the Indian innings but the break in the contest caused him the lapse of concentration.

Marlon Samuels: He bowled exceptionally well and gave away just 22 runs in the nine overs that he bowled. He picked up the wicket of Dinesh Karthik when he was looking quite settled and also applied the brakes on the Indian innings.

Ravi Ashwin: Ashwin has got the knack of picking up wickets and he used that to the full extent in this match. He picked up the wickets of Dinesh Ramdin and Darren Bravo in quick succession, which gave India an outside chance to win this match.

Darren Bravo: Bravo played a great hand in this contest as he contributed 55 runs with the bat. He scored five fours and one six in his innings but played an awkward pull shot off Ashwin and got out when the match was looking in the favour of his team.

FLOPS

Chris Gayle: Gayle departed after scoring a couple of boundaries. He became the victim of brilliant field placement by Virat Kohli which restricted Gayle, who was trying to break the shackles but couldn’t outshine Suresh Raina who was fielding at short cover.

Tino Best: Best was missing his line and length in his first spell and gave away 26 runs. Though, he ended up with the figures of 2/52 but it was more because of the loose shots that Indian batsmen played on his bowling.

Shikhar Dhawan: Dhawan was bundled up when he was trying to play a straight shot by coming down the wicket to Roach. He scored just 11 runs off 10 balls which was studded with two beautiful boundaries, but couldn’t carry it for long.

Virat Kohli: Kohli did the same mistake as Dhawan and paid the price. He wasn’t able to get singles and that forced him to play that outrageous shot. He was sent back to pavilion by Darren Sammy who had bowled a maiden over to him when he initially came to the centre.

Sunil Narine: Narine was supposed to be the trumpcard for West Indies but he failed to pick up any wickets. Though he didn’t bowl badly, he was milked for one and twos and ended up with the figures 0/56 after his 10 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja: Jadeja went wicket-less which made a huge difference in this match. Most of the times, he was smacked for boundaries by Charles in the first three balls of the over that he bowled which simply tilted the balance in the favour of Windies.

Devon Smith: Devon couldn’t do much and was trapped in front of the wickets by Yadav who stick to his stump to stump line. He didn’t contribute any runs to the Windies total and departed after facing three deliveries.

Keiron Pollard:  Stand-in captain didn’t have a good day with the bat and departed after his contribution of four runs. Ishant got some sharp bounce off the wicket and that was enough to get a thick edge of Pollard’s willow.

By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network