After India squeaked through against Bangladesh by a single run in the group stages, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni lashed out at a journalist who questioned his team’s performance on the day. On Thursday, those inconsistencies surfaced again and the captain’s worst fears came true as India were knocked out at the semi-final stage in Mumbai on Thursday, sending the West Indies through to their second World Twenty20 final.
Andre Russell put a full toss from Virat Kohli into the stands off the fourth ball of the last over to settle a calm, calculated chase in a game that he West Indies fully deserved to win on the basis of their superb batting.
Bowlers go missing
After the match, West Indian captain Darren Sammy responded to a question on his interval pep talk to his players by claiming that he had told his team that India were 10 runs short. Yet, the total of 192 had seemed plenty after another Kohli masterclass of 89 off just 47 balls had put India on its way to a second successive final.
Unlike most of India’s matches this World Twenty20, many of its players showed adequate spine on the day India had to set out on another great hunt. For the first time in the tournament, the batting order, not just Virat Kohli, put up a semblance of a fight as they lost only two wickets in their 20 overs.
Unfortunately for captain Dhoni, his bowlers were a big let-down as they kept leaking boundaries at regular intervals. As a result, West Indies never let the required rate mount beyond manageable levels.
Still, it couldn't have got off to a better start. It looked to be all going India’s way when they began bowling as Chris Gayle, that Waterloo of many a T20 bowler, was dismissed on the first ball of the second over of the innings. Bumrah claimed Gayle with his first ball of the evening, a low in-swinging full toss that crashed into the Jamaican’s off stump.
When the veteran Ashish Nehra had an out-of-sorts Marlon Samuels caught by Ajinkya Rahane at cover, West Indies were suddenly 19 for 2 after three overs. But that was as good as it got for the home team. That brought to the crease Lendl Simmons, who was playing his first match of the tournament on the home ground of his Indian Premier League team Mumbai India after being out for most of the tournament with a back injury.
Fortune favours the brave
Simmons, a replacement for the injured and big-hitting Andre Fletcher in the WI squad, steadied the ship immensely. His Kohli-esque innings of 82 off 51 balls was however, not without chance, as the right-hander from Trinidad had three lives on the night.
The first came off the fifth ball of the seventh over as Simmons got a thick outside edge to a short and wide delivery off Ravichandran Ashwin to Jasrpit Bumrah at short third man who took a stunning low catch to his right. Simmons walked off but Indian celebrations were soon cut short as replays showed that Ashwin had clearly overstepped the crease.
Next, it was Hardik Pandya’s turn to bowl a costly no-ball as Simmons slapped a full toss straight to Ashwin at cover who took the catch but to no avail. To add insult to injury, Simmons dispatched the ensuing free hit for a six.
The final chance came in the 18th over as Bumrah bowled three straight dot balls to pull the equation back to 32 required off 15 balls. The fourth ball was smashed by Simmons to the wide long on boundary where Ravindra Jadeja caught the ball and pushed it back in to Kohli who caught the follow-up. The replays were again in West Indies’ favour as Jadeja was adjudged to have touched the rope with the ball in hand.
Johnson Charles and Andre Russell also pitched in with handy innings’ of 52 off 36 balls and 43 off just 20 balls respectively. At one point, it seemed Kohli the bowler would turn the match India’s way, especially when he dismissed Johnson Charles off his first delivery but Andre Russell soon took over.
Post-mortem required
To say that India had a smooth ride till the semi-finals would be an understatement. Virat Kohli was the outstanding player for India as he followed up his superb performance in the 2014 edition with another good outing, scoring 273 runs at an average of 136.50 and 146.77.
The batting order, barring Kohli, which had flopped miserably so far, finally clicked but it was not to be for India as all their frontline bowlers with the exception of Nehra went for over ten runs an over.
Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya gave away a combined 111 runs off their 10 overs due to a combination of juicy width and some long hops offered by the spinners and some poor short bowling by the rookie Pandya. The myth around Ashwin being the world’s best T20 spinner has definitely taken a hit as the Chennai offie did not bowl more than two overs either in this or the last match. Ashwin was also found wanting against New Zealand in India's first match in the tournament in Nagpur on a pitch which was optimally used by the Kiwi spinners.
Even more bizarre was the decision to stick to the two spinners on a pitch that did not offer them any substantial assistance. Not giving Ashwin his full quota of overs also meant that Kohli with his part-time gentle medium pace had to chip in with two overs.
At the end, the captain decided to use Bumrah for the 18th over and not the crucial 19th. The decision to bowl Nehra out by the 16th over proved costly as Ravindra Jadeja, who had already gone for 36 in his previous three, conceded 12 runs off the penultimate over to all but finish India’s hopes of salvaging the match. Bumrah bowling the 19th over might not have saved the match either as the youngster had a rare outing in which he erred in his line and length, going for 42 in his four overs.
Before we move on to the final, a moment of thought must be spared for the fantastic Kohli as he put in a series of match-winning, single-handed, stupendous knocks to put India on the verge of the final.
The boys from the Caribbean on the balance of their play deserve to be in the final and it is they who will be going into the Eden Gardens final against England all gung-ho after toppling the much-fancied hosts.
Final Score: West Indies (196/3 in 19.4 overs) beat India (192/2 in 20 overs) by seven wickets
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