West Indies crashed to an embarrassing nine-wicket defeat to India after a stunning batting collapse in their Cricket World Cup (CWC) warm-up match at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium yesterday.
By Daniel TownBefore a big crowd on Jamaica's north coast, West Indies woefully crashed to 85 all out in 25.5 overs on a hardly treacherous pitch after they opted to bat first on winning the toss.
India lost only one wicket in achieving their modest target, coasting to 86 for one in 18.3 overs.
In a dramatic turn of events, the hosts swiftly lost their last eight wickets for 32 runs after they were undermined by pacers Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan.
Patel, who created a favourable impression on India's tour to the Caribbean last season, bowled impressively to finish with four for ten off six overs, while left-armer Pathan, who instigated the collapse by removing captain Brian Lara, took three for 25 in six overs.
The pair bowled well in tandem, but West Indies' demise was also caused by the indiscretions of some of their batsmen as they deteriorated from 53 for two to 62 for eight.
Only three West Indians reached double-figures. After Lara played a few exciting strokes on the way to 22 off 35 balls, he fell to a return catch when he failed to pick a slower ball from Pathan to the last ball of the 15th over.
Three balls later, Patel struck by dismissing Ramnaresh Sarwan to a catch at second slip. Both Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard fell to disappointing strokes. Bravo miscued a pull off Patel to give a catch to mid-wicket, while Pollard edged a big drive to the keeper off a slower ball from Pathan.
Marlon Samuels, a century-maker in the West Indies' first warm-up match against Kenya on Monday, was moved down to No. 8, but lasted just one ball, falling lbw to Pathan as he tried to push forward. The slide continued next ball when Denesh Ramdin edged a catch low to first slip to give Patel his third wicket. It meant that West Indies had lost six wickets for nine runs in 4.2 overs.
There was a brief break in the fall of wickets as Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith put on 18 for the ninth wicket. The stand was ended when Smith miscued a pull off Patel and was caught at mid-wicket for 13. India duly wrapped up the innings with Anil Kumble winning an lbw call against Jerome Taylor with his fifth ball. There was early success for West Indies as fast bowler Daren Powell induced Virender Sehwag into edging a catch to the keeper in the second over, but India had few problems after that.
Opener Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik played without any bother in adding an unbroken 80 for the second wicket. Karthik, given a chance to bat at No.3, finished unbeaten on 38 off 67 balls, while Uthappa weighed in with 35 not out off 43 balls.
After Sunday's opening ceremony, West Indies face Pakistan in the first match of the tournament on Tuesday at Sabina Park in Kingston, while India are in action on March 17 against Bangladesh at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain.
