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Buoyant India eye consistency
Having survived a scare in the opening match, India go into the second one-dayer against the West Indies here today, fully aware that they need to maintain their intensity right through the game to take an invincible 2-0 lead.
- Agencies
- Published: 22:43 June 27, 2009
Kingston, Jamaica: Having survived a scare in the opening match, India go into the second one-dayer against the West Indies here today, fully aware that they need to maintain their intensity right through the game to take an invincible 2-0 lead.
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that his teammates got complacent after polishing the top-order of the West Indies, who nearly toppled India in the high-scoring first one-dayer.
India set a massive 340-run target before the hosts, but had to toil hard to defend it before managing a 20-run win at Sabina Park. Yuvraj Singh struck 131 in 102 balls but the West Indies came close to chasing the target with contributions from skipper Chris Gayle (37)), Runako Morton (42), Ramnaresh Sarwan (45) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (63).
The close game will serve as a wake-up call for the visitors who are determined to make amends for their Twenty20 World Cup debacle by clinching the four-match series.
Dhoni has called upon his teammates to be more aggressive and it remains to be been seen how the Indians respond to their captain who finds himself under some pressure now.
"Most of the guys thought that we have won the game when they were seven wicket down, but it was a mistake and hopefully we won't repeat that. It was more close than thought," he said.
With the dashing Virender Sehwag not available for the series, the Indians have struggled to get the starts though new opener Dinesh Karthik did well by scoring 67. The left-handed Gautam Gambhir has not been in good nick for some time now and the Delhi batsman will be keen to rediscover his touch.
Yuvraj Singh, who clobbered a rollicking 131 in Friday's game, has been in excellent form and will have to shoulder the responsibility of taking India to a healthy total.
"He has matured as a batsman in the last couple of years. We rely a lot on him," said Dhoni.
"He gets big runs for us in the middle-order," Dhoni said handing Ashish Nehra the ball in the closing stage was a gamble which paid off.
"It was a gamble. We were thinking of giving that over to an off-spinner or a pacer. Finally we chose a pacer as the ball was getting reverse swing,"
West Indies captain Chris Gayle sounded happy with the effort of the team in Friday's game. "We came close and the effort can't be faulted for the way we went about it," Gayle said.
"We batted well. Darren [Bravo], who was making debut, was impressive. Shiv [Chanderpaul] played a top innings. If we had won the toss we would have batted first because it is a flat track," he added.
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