Dharamsala: Aided by a fabulous century by Virat Kohli, India defeated the West Indies by 59 runs in the fourth one-day international (ODI) at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium here yesterday.
Set a target of 331 runs after Indian batsman and Man-of-the-Match Virat Kohli slammed his 20th ODI century (127) to help the home team post an imposing score of 330 for six, the West Indies innings folded for 271 runs in 48.1 overs, despite Marlon Samuels’ fighting century (112).
The Windies innings got off to a shaky side with the tourists reduced to 27 for two in the 11th over.
But Samuels, the in-form batsman, struck his second century of the series to give them hope. However, they lost wickets at regular intervals to fall way short of their target.
The Indian bowlers performed well with as many as five bowlers taking two wickets each.
Earlier, the visitors won the toss and elected to field but they were left to rue the decision as India made a strong start through Shikhar Dhwan (35) and Ajinkya Rahane (68), who added 70 runs for the opening wicket.
Kohli then extended the misery of the Windies with a superb 114-ball knock, studded with 13 fours and three sixes.
Suresh Raina gave Kohli able support and hammered his way to 71 off just 58 balls.
The duo strung together 138 runs off 108 balls as India sped to 280 in the 45th over. The visitors did manage to remove Raina and the dangerous Mahendra Singh Dhoni, too, failed to get going.
But that didn’t stop the Indian juggernaut, led by Kohli, as the hosts manage to score 30 runs off the final 16 balls to post an imposing target. Sulieman Benn was the most economical of the Windies bowlers and also managed to pick up a wicket. IANS
