India blown away by West wind

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, March 31

India beat Chris Gayle but lost to Lendl Simmons. The diminutive batsman, compared to Chris Gayle, hammered a match-winning 51-ball 82 to take West Indies into the final and bring down curtains on the Indian campaign in the World T20.

Simmons, however, would struggle to resist the temptation to slip a thank-you note into the Indian dressing room as India offered him three lives as he anchored the West Indian to the daunting 293-run target in the final over.

He should have been out for 18 when Jasprit Bumrah caught him in gully, only for the umpire to declare it a no-ball. When he was on 50, Hardik Pandya had him caught in the covers, but the bowler had overstepped. In the dying stages of the match, Ravindra Jadeja touched the boundary rope while holding on his third chance. Besides Simmons, opener Johnson Charles (52) and all-rounder Andre Rusell (43no) gave Simmons a huge support as he went on to dash the hopes of thousands at the Wankhde Stadium and millions across the country.

Earlier, it seemed West Indies wanted to experience the Virat Kohli magic first hand. Why else would they miss running out Kohli thrice on two balls when he had just come in and had scored just one run? Well, they asked for a Kohli show and they got it. The Indian run machine, after surviving those close shaves, hammered an unbeaten 89 off just 47 balls, setting up a huge 193-target for West Indies.

On the third ball of the ninth over, Kohli was way down the wicket, trying to steal a bye, but wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin missed the stumps with an underarm throw; Dwanye Bravo up picked up the ball,  threw it at the stumps, only  to miss it by a whisker. On the very next ball, Kohli would have been out if the keeper had collected the throw. But once he survived those brain-freeze moments, the normal Kohli services resumed and the bowlers and fielders couldn’t do much except for admiring the show, or regretting the missed opportunities.

And by the time the Delhi batsman walked off the field with MS Dhoni giving him company, he had almost batted the West Indians out of the game, setting them a massive 193-run target. He hit the top gear when Dhoni joined him in the middle, with India at 128/2 and just 27 balls remaining of the innings. Together, they smashed 64 runs off these 27 balls, with Dhoni scoring just 15 in the partnership. The modus operandi of the duo was the same as used for decimating Australia – they ran the West Indian fielders rugged and Kohli unleashed a torrent of boundaries in the last five overs.

Apart from the explosive unbeaten partnership with Dhoni, Kohli shared a relatively sedate 66-run stand off 51 balls for the third wicket with Ajinkya Rahane. The latter came in for struggling Shikhar Dhawan and gave India a solid start, with Rohit Sharma (43) and him gathering 62 runs for the first wicket. Rahane looked solid in his 35-ball 40 but lacked fluency.