India’s professionalism and efficiency suffocated a downcast West Indies team in limiting them to 189 for nine batting first in the fourth fixture of the five-match one-day international series in Antigua on Sunday.
Pacers Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya claimed three wickets each, while wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav again teased and tormented the batsmen in adding two more victims to his series haul at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
While each of the West Indies top five managed to get a start, none could get past 35 as India exerted almost complete control over a line-up that lacked the inspirational spark to put the opposition under pressure.
Openers Evin Lewis and Kyle Hope were the joint topscorers with 35 a-piece although their pedestrian rate of progress – the opening stand of 57 was broken in the 18th over – meant those who followed were required to pick up the pace.
None managed to do so for any sustained period with Pandya and Kuldeep doing the bulk of the damage to the West Indies batting line-up early on, before Umesh ensured there was to be no threat from the reputed lower-order big-hitters as he accounted for Jason Holder, Rovman Powell and Ashley Nurse in his second spell towards the end of the innings.
Holder’s decision to bat first, a reversal of the trend in previous matches, looked a sensible one given the batting-friendly conditions.
Trailing 2-0 in the series after heavy losses in Trinidad and the opening match of the double-header here, the Caribbean team retained the same batting line-up that failed to deliver in pursuit of a target of 252 two days earlier.
Their only change was the inclusion of young fast bowler Alzarri Joseph on his home ground in place of medium-pacer Miguel Cummins.
As was hinted by captain Virat Kohli following the 93-run triumph on Friday, India rang the changes with Dinesh Karthik replacing Yuvraj Singh in the middle-order, Ravindra Jadeja coming in as a specialist spinner instead of Ravichandran Ashwin, and Mohammed Shami getting his first taste of ODI action since the 2015 World Cup as Bhuvneshwar Kumar was rested.
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