Colts back in stride

Playing in an almost Eden Garden-ish atmosphere at Dhaka, India today upstaged West Indies by 96 runs in their Super League playoff. As tri-...

Playing in an almost Eden Garden-ish atmosphere at Dhaka, India today upstaged West Indies by 96 runs in their Super League playoff. As tri-colours fluttered in the stands, the Indians did manage to put it across the West Indies but not without a few hiccups.

The match proved that the Indian juniors idolised their seniors too seriously.

Much like their seniors, they chose to throw away their wickets. The West Indians didn8217;t earn a single wicket on the day as the Indians floundered time and again to gift away their wickets.

Star of the Indian show so far 8212; Shikhar Dhawan 8212; was the first to go for six when he played playing an unnecessary shot. Ditto with Robin Uthappa 3 and Rakesh Solanki 33. It was the contributions from captain Ambati Rayudu 47, Suresh Raina 66 and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik 46 that saw India to a decent total.

West Indian mediumpacer Ravi Rampaul, who was uncertain for this match because of an 8220;illness8221;, was the best on show but still went for 55 runs while picking up two wickets.

Like the Indians, the West Indians too committed harakiri with their batting. But what clinched the match in favour of India was the class act by their spinners, admittedly of a notch higher than that of the West Indians.

Abhishek Sharma, bowling with control flighted beautifully to have the un-pedigreed West Indians in a wrap.

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The Delhi spinner finished with figures of 4/28 from 7.1 overs. Prior to that, opening bowlers Gaurav Dhiman and R P Singh combined well to reduce the West Indians to 54-4, Dhiman picking three and Singh one.

After the match, technical director Dilip Vengsarkar expressed confidence that the win would spur them on to a big win against Sri Lanka on Thursday and a spot in the semifinals.

8216;8216;Fairly good so far. We lost that match narrowly, and won this one by a big margin, which puts us in a strong position if things come to the run quotient factor. We of course will hope it doesn8217;t, and we go through anyway. But Sri Lanka8217;s is a crucial match and we know what to expect.8217;8217;