Opening bowlers Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav shared seven wickets to limit the West Indies to 205 for nine batting first against India in the fifth and final one-day international at Sabina Park on Thursday.
Seeking victory in Jamaica to earn a share of the honours from a series in which they entered as huge underdogs, the home side’s only substantial contributions came from the Hope brothers, Shai and Kyle.
Shai topscored with 51, his second half-century of the series, while Kyle contributed 46 at the top of the order.
All-rounders Jason Holder and Rovman Powell got to 36 and 31 respectively, but failed to capitalise as the visitors tightened the screws on their opponents with disciplined bowling from their two frontline seamers towards the end of the innings.
Shami, playing just his second ODI since the 2015 World Cup, finished with four for 48 while Yadav completed his ten-over spell with three wickets at a cost of 53 runs.
Despite their combined successes, it was Hardik Pandya who made the first breakthrough after Holder chose to bat first on winning the toss, both teams being unchanged from the West Indies’ 11-run win in the fourth match four days earlier in Antigua.
Brought on to facilitate a switching of ends by Shami and Yadav, Pandya induced a loose drive from Evin Lewis to have him caught at mid-off.
Shai joined Kyle Hope and the pair attempted to accelerate on a pitch that appeared much better for batting than for the last two games at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
Kyle took a particular liking to Yadav, smashing him for consecutive boundaries. But the bowler had the last laugh as the batsman found Shikhar Dhawan at midwicket attempting another boundary in the same over.
Roston Chase’s miserable series with the bat continued when he was trapped leg-before to the very next delivery from Yadav and it was left to Holder to give the innings some momentum.
He dominated a 48-run fifth-wicket partnership with Shai Hope only to depart to Shami at the start of his second spell.
He then claimed the important wicket of Shai Hope, via an excellent diving catch on the midwicket boundary by Ajinkya Rahane, before adding Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bishoo to his list of victims.
Powell was the West Indies’ last chance of getting up to the 220-run mark. However his entertaining run-a-ball innings was ended in the final over by Yadav via a catch behind by wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
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