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Rampaul and Taylor set up the match for us - Gayle
West Indies skipper looks to keep momentum after defeating India.
- IANS
- Published: 23:16 June 29, 2009
Kingston: West Indies captain Chris Gayle praised fast bowlers Ravi Rampaul and Jerome Taylor for setting up the second one-day international cricket match for the hosts against India here on Sunday.
Rampaul (4-37) and Taylor (3-35) were destructive with the new ball and bowled out India for 188 runs. Gayle (64) and Runako Morton (85) then blasted 101 runs for the first wicket as West Indies achieved the target in 34.1 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Gayle said it was nice to square the series with a good all-round performance.
"Rampaul and Taylor set the game for us and from now on we will look to go strength to strength. There was moisture in the wicket and Taylor and Ravi utilised it well, and the catching was also good, so we just need to keep working on our game," Gayle said.
Rampaul said he is delighted with his superb display against India. The 24-year-old was also adjudged the Man-of-the-Match.
"It was the best I have bowled for a long time. I was playing four-day cricket and coming back to one-day, my rhythm and everything went well - today I bowled really well," Rampaul said.
Rampaul said that he was surprised to see Indian batsmen playing loose shots.
"I was getting a little swing with the ball so I was just waiting for them to play the rash shots," he said.
Rampaul also said that he was well aware of Indian batsmen's weakness against short-pitched deliveries.
"They weren't too comfortable with the short balls so I used it as a surprise delivery," Rampaul said.
Smarting from the eight-wicket defeat to West Indies, a dejected Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his team failed to gauge the wicket and felt that batsmen should have paid more respect to the rival bowlers.
Dhoni stood amid the ruins with a sedate 95 as India suffered a batting collapse against some fierce fast bowling to be dismissed for a modest 188 in 48.2 overs on Sunday.
"We should have paid a little more respect to the bowlers. The wicket was a bit difficult, it was swinging around a bit. We didn't judge the wicket well and just went around playing our strokes which really brought our downfall," Dhoni said after the match.
"Once you lose too many wickets then the only thing that you are doing is catching up. R. P. and me had a partnership otherwise it would have been quite embarrassing," he added.
Dhoni forged a record 101-run partnership for the ninth wicket with R. P. Singh to stage India's recovery after they were reduced to 82-8 in 22 overs.
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