West Indies v/s India, 4th ODI: India’s mighty batting line up falters to keep host’s series hopes alive

An inexplicable slow batting pushed India to a 11-run defeat in the fourth cricket One-day International against West Indies, who kept the five- match series alive, on Sunday.

A second-string West Indies which never looked like challenging India enough in this series, scored a modest 189 for nine, but sluggish batting by the visitors specially Mahendra Singh Dhoni (54 off 114 balls) turned it into a winning total.

India needed 31 runs off last five overs with both Dhoni and Hardik Pandya (20 off 21) at the crease but the visitors were all out for 178 in 49.4 overs.

From overs 35 to 43, India scored just 23 runs, making heavy weather of the chase. The 44th over by part-timer Roston Chase fetched India 16 runs that eased off the pressure a bit but India still fell short.

West Indies captain Jason Holder (5/27) not only removed Virat Kohli upfront he got rid of Pandya at the crucial juncture in his memorable five-wicket haul.

It was perhaps Dhoni’s slowest half-centuries as he took 108 balls to get to his 64th fifty in the ODIs. He scored his first boundary in the 103rd ball he faced.

He holed out to Alzarri Joseph at boundary ropes off Kesrick …read more