India win second ODI and take unassailable 2-0 series lead

2nd One-Day International

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, India

Toss: West Indies won the toss and bowled

Result: India won by 44 runs

Player-of-the-Match: Pradish Krishna

Scoreboard: http://bit.ly/3oC6kQl

Despite an excellent team bowling effort, which kept the Indian batting to a sub-250 total, West Indies again failed to reach the target and fell to their second consecutive defeat. India were asked to bat first and were restricted to 237-9 off 50 overs on Friday. They however were bowled out for 193 off 46 overs to give the home team an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Prasidh Krishna's impressive 4-12 off nine overs and Suryakumar Yadav's half-century (63) powered India to the win. The result leaves India (69 points) and West Indies (50 points) in third and eighth position respectively in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League table. Please see here: https://www.icc-cricket.com/cricket-world-cup-super-league/standings

Reflecting on the result, West Indies captain stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran said: “We let it slip with the bat. We weren't able to put up partnerships and kept losing wickets. The more cricket we play together, hopefully that helps us as batters. Odean Smith is special. He is a strong guy who runs in and can bowl 145. He is still young and with experience, sky's the limit for him."

Indian captain Rohit Sharma departed in the third over of the innings with just nine runs on the board as he was dismissed caught behind off Kemar Roach's bowling, to give the veteran quick his first ODI wicket following his recall to 50 overs cricket since his last outing in 2019. Rishabh Pant then was dismissed in the 12th over after a brief 30-run stand with Virat Kohli. The former India skipper couldn't stay in the middle for long either, as Odean Smith got rid of him in the same over, leaving India precariously placed on 43-3.

KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav steadied the ship registering an 89-run fourth-wicket stand, which ended in the 30th over when a miscommunication between Rahul (49) and Yadav resulted in his run out by Akeal Hosein. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals after that and could manage a total of only 237-9 in their quota of overs.

Shai Hope and Brandon King got West Indies off to a good start putting on 32 runs in seven overs. Prasidh Krishna gave India breakthroughs in back-to-back overs as he dismissed both King and Darren Bravo caught behind.

Hope tried to hang around but he succumbed to the pressure once legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal was introduced into the attack as West Indies were reduced to 52-3 in the 17th over. Krishna stepped up to the occasion once again as Pooran edged out to Rohit Sharma in the slips a couple of overs later.

West Indies never recovered from that situation again as the Indian bowlers kept piling the pressure on them. Akeal Hosein and Odean Smith tried their best to keep the visitors in the chase with knocks of 34 and 24 down the order respectively, but their contributions didn't turn out to be enough as West Indies still fell short.

The two teams meet in the third and final One-Day International at the same venue on Wednesday. First ball is 1:30pm (4am East Caribbean/3am Jamaica).