In Antigua Kieron Pollard finally came to the party. Much has been said about his capabilities — or shall we say the lack of it as a one-day player and his commitment to West Indies cricket. But after disappointing in the series so far, Pollard decided to answer his critics.
India had won the toss and chosen to bat. As has been the pattern in the series, West Indies were in trouble early in their innings. Continuing with their weird selection policy, they dropped their regular opener Kirk Edwards and opened with Danza Hyatt instead.
That experiment lasted just 11 balls as he gave catching practice to Manoj Tiwary off the bowling of Ishant Sharma.
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| Kieron Pollard during his knock of 70 yesterday |
The hosts lost three more wickets before they could cross the 100-run mark. Lendl Simmons (67), fighting a lone battle in middle, was run out when he looked set for more.
Pollard, meanwhile, had a slow start. It often looked that he wasn’t in total control but to his credit he showed patience in reaching his fifty in 58 balls with four boundaries and a six.
Amit Mishra, who has troubled all the West Indies batsmen in the series, was hit for a six and a four in the same over. When it appeared that Pollard would hurt the visitors big time, Ishant Sharma caught him (70) at long-off off R Ashwin.
He and Carlton Baugh added 96 for sixth wicket. Some late fireworks by the hero of the last match, Andre Russell, and Baugh took them to 249 their top score in the series so far.
Tiwary misses out again
India started on a poor note. Tiwary was playing his first one-day international after his forgettable debut against Australia at Brisbane in February 2008. He had scored two then and didn’t better it yesterday.
Parthiv Patel was brilliantly caught and bowled by Darren Sammy. S Badrinath should also been in the hut too as he gloved Andre Russell to keeper Baugh but umpire Norman Malcolm thought otherwise.
Badri though didn’t last long, falling to the Russell-Baugh combination an over later. At the time of going to print India were 62-3 in the 17th over.
Brief Scores: West Indies 249 for 8 in 50 overs (K Pollard 70, L Simmons 67, P Kumar 3/37, A Mishra 2/56) vs India 55 for 2 in 15 overs
