India suffered a 11 run loss against West Indies at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua last night. Indian captain Virat Kohli didn’t single out any performance and said that India’s batsmen’s shot selection was very poor, on a wicket that was two-paced.
After registering wins in the second and third ODI, India were favourite to win the fourth one, but the young West Indian team bowled exceptionally well and registered a famous win.
In the first innings Indian bowlers bowled exceptionally well to restrict West Indies to 189 in 50 overs. Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya took three wickets each and the young chinaman Kuldeep Yadav picked two crucial wickets.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli praised was all praise for the effort put in by his bowling department.
“The bowlers were on the mark, and the fielders as well. With the bat we faltered and that can happen in this game. We just have to put this behind us and come back fresh for the next game,” Kohli said.
While chasing a low score, Indian openers and middle order struggled to get going and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Talking about the batting performance, Kohli said that poor shot selection was the biggest reason behind Team India’s loss.
“Our shot selection wasn’t up to the mark.Losing crucial wickets at crucial stages. You’ve got to keep up the momentum through the game,” Virat said,
“The wicket was a bit two-paced. Credit to West Indian bowlers. They created those dot balls that induced those mistakes,” he added.
Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli fell early only to pave way for Rahane and Dhoni to build a partneship. Dinesh Karthik too failed on his comeback and after Bishoo took Rahane’s wicket Hardik and Kedar failed to create a partnership with Dhoni. Both got dismissed at 10 and 20 respectively. Jadeja’s poor shot selection too put India and MS Dhoni under a lot of pressure. Only Dhoni’s slowest ODI fifty in 114 balls took India near to victory but his wicket on the last ball of the 49th turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for India.
West Indian bowlers, specially captain Jason Holder, who took 5 wickets, bowled exceptionally well and didn’t allow Indian batsmen to find any momentum whatsoever.
