PORT-OF-SPAIN – CHRIS Gayle produced a vicious innings of 72 and wore 301 on the back of his shirt to signify the number of One-Day Internationals he has played in.
But once again Indian captain Viral Kohli upstaged Gayle and West Indies at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain to take the three-match ODI series two-nil on Wednesday.
West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss for the first time in the series and elected to bat. Gayle hit 72 off 41 balls that included eight fours and five sixes. His opening partner Evin Lewis got to 43 before slog sweeping to Shikhar Dhawan off a Yuzvendra Chahal’s full delivery.
The 115 opening stand for the West Indies set things up as the rain was to also play its part. Nicholas Pooran (30), Shimron Hetmyer (25) and Shai Hope (24) all contributed to West Indies tally of 240 for 7 in the rain reduced 35 overs.
And by the calculations of the Duckworth/Lewis Method, India had been set a target of 255 in 35 overs.
West Indies had a wonderful start when Rohit Sharma was run out for 10 and could have had the icing on the cake had wicketkeeper Shai Hope taken Kohli’s inside-edge flick when he was only on 11. This was off Keemo Paul’s bowling.
Kohli then got down to business and ended on an unbeaten 114 off 99 balls and India cruised to victory with 15 balls to spare for the loss of four wickets.
Shreyas Iyer made 65, his second consecutive half century batting at No 5.
DLS Method 35-over match India 256 for 4 (Kohli 114*, Iyer 65, Allen 2-40) beat West Indies (Gayle 72, Lewis 43, Khaleel 3-68, Shami 2-50) by six wickets
