Followers of modern West Indies cricket won't be surprised. It is painfully familiar. They put behind them yet another disappointment, make a good start, capitalise on it in the middle part, but stumble at the last mile. It happened this Saturday, when they were all over India with the ball, but lost all discipline and control in the last five overs. Today with the bat, they got off to a solid start, ensured minimal damage to the spin threat of Amit Mishra, accumulated steadily in the first 40 overs to reach 192 for 3, and then lost four wickets for five runs, reaching only 240 in the end.
Led by a 120-run second-wicket stand between Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel, India reached home without a bother, except for the rain break at the end of the 22nd over, which left them a slightly stiffer revised target of 83 more off 90 balls. Kolhi and Parthiv came back, and for about five minutes kept taking undue risks. Kohli and Suresh Raina, though, unfurled a few big ones to finish the game off in a hurry. In scoring his 19th score of fifty or more, Kohli also became the third-fastest Indian to 2000 ODI runs.
