Kohli fastest to score 20,000 runs
Manchester: Indian bowlers led by the deadly Mohammed Shami produced yet another splendid performance to put their team on the cusp of a semi-final berth with a 125-run rout of the West Indies in their sixth World Cup encounter here Thursday.
With 11 points, India are now almost through and another win in their next three games will seal their position in the top four as West Indies were knocked out with two games remaining.
Indian captain Virat Kohli on Thursday also became the quickest batsman to complete 20,000 international runs as he touched the milestone in his 417th inning.Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar and West Indies batsman Brian Lara jointly held the record previously as they completed the feat in their 453rd inning.Kolhi needed just 37 runs to complete his 20,000 international runs when he came out to bat against West Indies in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Kohli smashed a brilliant half-century and consequently became the fastest batsman to score 20,000 runs.Moreover, he is the only third Indian batsmen to score more than 20,000 runs across all formats after Tendulkar (34,357) and Rahul Dravid (24,208).
India scored 268 for 7, riding on half-centuries by Virat Kohli (72 off 82 balls) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56 off 61 balls) and it turned out to be good enough as West Indies were shot out for 124 in only 34.2 overs. In two successive matches now, the bowlers have more than covered up for a mediocre show from the batsmen, save skipper Kohli. Shami (4/16 in 6.2 overs) was at his best in the first spell as he first bounced Chris Gayle out and then bowled an off-cutter to remove Shai Hope. In his second spell, he got Shimron Hetmyer while new ball partner Jasprit Bumrah (2/9 in 6 overs) was fast and accurate getting two wickets of successive deliveries.
The last seven wickets fell for 63 runs in a space of 14 overs which indicated the Caribbean plight. Bhuvneshwar Kumar with his incisive swing bowling has always been Chris Gayle’s (6 off 19 balls) nemesis but it was in-form Shami, who drew the first blood with a short ball that climbed on the big man and the mistimed pull was taken by Kedar Jadhav, running sideways from his mid-on position. When India batted, Dhoni scratched around for the better part of his innings before exploding in the final over to take India to 268 for 7 on a track that look good for batting. There has been a lot of talk about Dhoni’s failure to rotate the strike and Thursday’s batting effort on another dry and slow track will only amplify the criticism before he got 16 in the final over to finish on 56 off 61 deliveries with three fours and two sixes. More than his strike-rate, his percentage of dot balls remains a concern for India. If India played 152 dot balls against Afghanistan, the run-less delivery count was 163 in this game. It was Pandya, whose 46 off 38 balls took India past 250-run mark after skipper Kohli scored his fourth half-century.
The middle-order looked jittery again with skipper Kohli not getting enough support from the other batsmen. However, India skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday put his weight behind under-fire Mahendra Singh Dhoni, describing him as a legend of the game whose keen understanding and experience has held the team in good stead.
Dhoni faced criticism for his failure to rotate the strike against Afghanistan spinners and even against the West Indies, the former India skipper initially found the going tough before he got 16 in the final over to finish on 56 off 61 deliveries and take India to 268 for seven. “Dhoni knows exactly what he wants to do in the middle. When he has an off day here and there, everyone starts talking. We always back him. He has won us so many games,” Kohli said. (Agencies)
India: 268/7 in 50 overs
K L Rahul b Holder 48
Rohit Sharma c Hope b Roach 18
Virat Kohli c sub (DM Bravo) b Holder 72
Vijay Shankar c Hope b Roach 14
Kedar Jadhav c Hope b Roach 7
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 56
Hardik Pandya c Allen b Cottrell 46
Mohammed Shami c Hope b Cottrell 0
Kuldeep Yadav not out 0
Extras: (B-1, W-6) 7
Bowling: Sheldon Cottrell 10-0-50-2,
Kemar Roach 10-0-36-3, Oshane Thomas 7-0-63-0,
Fabian Allen 10-0-52-0, Jason Holder 10-2-33-2,
Carlos Brathwaite 3-0-33-0.
West Indies: 143 all out in 34.2 overs
Chris Gayle c Jadhav b Shami 6
Sunil Ambris lbw b Pandya 31
Shai Hope b Mohammed Shami 5
Nicholas Pooran c Shami b Kuldeep 28
Shimron Hetmyer c Rahul b Shami 18
Jason Holder c Jadhav b Chahal 6
Carlos Brathwaite c Dhoni b Bumrah 1
Fabian Allen lbw b Bumrah 0
Kemar Roach not out 14
Sheldon Cottrell lbw b Chahal 10
Oshane Thomas c Sharma b Shami 6
Extras: (B-9, LB-3, NB-1, W-5) 18
Bowling: Mohammed Shami 6.2-0-16-4,
Jasprit Bumrah 6-1-9-2, Hardik Pandya 5-0-28-1,
Kuldeep Yadav 9-1-35-1, Kedar Jadhav 1-0-4-0,
Yuzvendra Chahal 7-0-39-2. (PTI)