It was indeed an amazing turnaround at Delhi. India were close to another loss in the ODI series despite putting a decent score on the board.
On the batting front, India would have been happy to see Kohli's return of form (of course he was helped by the demotion in the batting order to a certain extent - he didnt have to play the new ball much here). Suresh Raina sparkled like he has been doing recently - his recent consistency has been amazing. Here, he continued the scoring when Kohli was settling down at the crease. The foundation laid was good for MSD to launch the final assault (71 in the last 10 overs). Virat, on the other hand, scored the same number of runs as Raina but needed a higher number of deliveries to do so. One cannot say that he was back to his form but he did all the right things to stay at the wicket and score a fifty. Dhoni did what he usually does - rotate the strike to keep the scorecard ticking and then launching into the bowling at the death.
On the batting front, India would have been happy to see Kohli's return of form (of course he was helped by the demotion in the batting order to a certain extent - he didnt have to play the new ball much here). Suresh Raina sparkled like he has been doing recently - his recent consistency has been amazing. Here, he continued the scoring when Kohli was settling down at the crease. The foundation laid was good for MSD to launch the final assault (71 in the last 10 overs). Virat, on the other hand, scored the same number of runs as Raina but needed a higher number of deliveries to do so. One cannot say that he was back to his form but he did all the right things to stay at the wicket and score a fifty. Dhoni did what he usually does - rotate the strike to keep the scorecard ticking and then launching into the bowling at the death.
Those who knew the Kotla wicket were aware of the low bounce that the pitch would offer for the chasing team. Dhoni knew it and the Windies were aware of the same. A good start by their openers meant that the Indian bowlers were on the backfoot. Amit Mishra was taken to the cleaners in the first ODI but here he came back with a vengeance. Despite conceding four sixes of his bowling, Mishra gave 16 more runs in his full quota but importantly scalping the important wicket of Pollard and Ramdin. Two maidens to Marlon Samuels meant that the Windies were strangled and the asking run-rate was growing. This led to Dwayne Smith's dismissal and then the wickets tumbled one after the other (eight wickets fell for 45 runs in less than 11 overs). Shami and Jadeja then came into the match, claiming regular wickets to hasten the end.
One-all and three matches to play. India will be expected to win now with the Windies tasting defeat and still hurting from the pay-issues. Let us see what happens next.
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