India clinched the third and deciding ODI by five wickets against West Indies to win the series 2-1, on back of Shikhar Dhawan’s dazzling century at the Green Park Stadium which was hosting an international game after a gap of nearly four years. With this series win, India’s tally of consecutive series win has moved to six. India has leveled its record of winning maximum series on trot equaling their previous best being six series win a row from August 2008 to September 2009.
MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to field first on a misty morning. Indians with the help of atmospheric conditions restricted West Indies to 5/263 and then nailed down the target with 23 balls to spare to lift yet another ODI trophy at home.
For India it was Shikhar Dhawan who stole the limelight with an aggressive innings of 119 off just 95 balls. He in the process scored his fifth ODI hundred and joined Upul Tharanga to score five hundreds in least number of innings – 28.
Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh got some form going with a scrappy 74-ball 55 to put up a crucial 129 run partnership for third wicket to set the hosts on path of victory. The 27-year-old left-hander from Delhi was joined by the out-of–sorts Yuvraj Singh and together they steadied the Indian innings for close to which 20 overs scoring at exactly a run-a-ball, after Ravi Rampaul picked up the early wickets of India’s star batsman in Rohit Sharma, who caught at first-slip for 4 runs and Virat Kohli guided the ball to wicketkeeper for 19 runs.
Dhawan scored freely throughout his innings but brought up his century in streaky fashion as he got a thick outside edge which raced away to the third-man boundary. Luck finally ran-out for Dhawan when Windies skipper Dwayne Bravo eventually got better of him with a slower ball that the batsman tried to chip over the bowler, but he was early on the shot and Bravo took an easy catch.
Late contributions from Suresh Raina, who scored 34 runs, and MS Dhoni, who socred 23* runs, got the home side over the line. Raina, though, was dismissed by Bravo when India needed nine to win.
For West Indies, Narine was especially economical as he only conceded 32 runs from 10 overs and took the sole wicket of Yuvraj, while Rampaul took 2-55 from his 10 alloted overs.
Earlier in the day West Indies were able to set up a modest target of 264 runs. At one stage, though, the Windies looked on course to make 300-plus with Marlon Samuels set and the scorecard reading 2/168 with nearly 15 overs left.
However, 2/168 became 3/168 when Samuels failed to keep out a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery that snuck between bat-and-pad to clip the bails. He faced 93 balls for his 71 runs, while hitting seven fours and a six in the process. He also shared in a 117-run second-wicket partnership with Kieran Powell who scored a decent 70.
Ravindra Jadeja struck two overs later as he got Lendl Simmons to edge behind a ball that beat him for bounce and Dhoni took an easy catch. Simmons scored 13 runs.
Dwayne Bravo again disappointed his team as he plaed a careless shot off the bowling of Shami Ahmed, putting the breaks on the Windies’ run-rate.
However, Darren Bravo (51 not out) and Darren Sammy (37 not out) put on 67 runs for the sixth wicket from just 49 balls to give the tourists a competitive total to defend. Ashwin was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he finished with figures of 2-45.
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