Shami, Dhoni help India to four-wicket win over West Indies

Mohammad Shami bowled superbly before Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a cool knock to take holders India to a four-wicket win over the West Indies and seal a place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Friday.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 6 March 2015, 07:37 AM
Updated : 6 March 2015, 03:59 PM

India put on a great bowling performance after West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to bat.

Shami returned from injury to take three wickets to help India skittle out Caribbeans for a paltry 182 in 44.2 overs.

Umesh Yadav was the perfect foil for Shami as the West Indians lost the half of their line-up within 67 runs on the bouncy WACA pitch in Perth.

Holder (57) offered the only resistance down the West Indies order with his highest ODI score, as the others struggled against the accuracy of the Indian bowlers.

Jerome Taylor forced India to a sluggish start taking out both their openers with only 20 on the board.

Virat Kohli’s (33) departure in the 15th over and Ajinkya Rahane’s (14) two overs after that put the Indian batsmen in a tight spot.

The West Indies bowlers shackled India further, reducing them to 134 for 6 in the 30th over.

Dhoni (45 not out), however, had other ideas. 

The right-hander added 27 for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja (13) and an unbroken 51 for the seventh with Ravichandran Ashwin (16 not out) to take India home in 39.1 overs.

Shami, who missed India's win against the United Arab Emirates with a knee injury on Saturday, put West Indies on the backfoot early by dismissing hard-hitting openers Dwayne Smith (6) and Chris Gayle (21) with the new ball.

Shami and his partner Yadav (2-42) started well, bowling fast and short on the WACA pitch as India dominated the explosive West Indies batting lineup.

Gayle, who hit the World Cup's highest individual score of 215 against Zimbabwe last week, offered two difficult chances before he pulled Shami straight to Mohit Sharma at deep square leg. 
 
He was also guilty of running out Marlon Samuels (2).
 
With their talisman gone, West Indies were reduced to 35-4 and then 85-7 on the first ball of the 25th over before some resolute batting from the tail saw them through to the 45th over.
 
Right-arm paceman Shami came back with an older ball to take out former captain Darren Sammy (26) to end a promising 39-run stand for the eighth wicket before Holder added 51 for the ninth with Taylor (11).
 
It was one of two wickets for the left-arm spinner to complete another strong bowling display by the two-time champions.

Holder hit four boundaries and three sixes before becoming the last man to fall off the bowling of Jadeja.