Visakhapatnam: Virat Kohli's 99 went in vain as Darren Sammy batted brilliantly towards the end and scored 63 off 45 balls to help West Indies beat India by two wickets and three balls to spare in a thriller at Vishakhapatnam on Sunday.
Chasing 289 to win, West Indies didn't have an ideal start as they lost Johson Charles and Marlon Samuels within six overs for just 23 runs. However, Keiron Powell (59 off 70 balls) and Darren Bravo (50 off 54 balls) forged in a fantastic third wicket partnership to add 100 runs that brought Windies into the game.
But after the vistors lost Bravo and Powell in quick succession, India were again on the top and with DJ Bravo gone in the 35th over with Windies on 185, West Indies were in for some trouble.
However Darren Sammy and Lindel Simmons rescued their team with an brilliant 82 runs for the sixth wicket partnership and later Sammy made sure that he took his team to a thrilling win with three balls to spare.
Earlier, Virat Kohli missed out on a hundred by just one run before skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s fiery knock propelled India to a challenging 288 for seven.
Electing to bowl, the West Indies kept India under pressure for most of the time but the hosts scored 62 runs off the last five overs to steal the thunder from the Caribbeans.
Dhoni slammed three sixes and four boundaries in his 40-ball knock in an entertaining 47-run seventh-wicket partnership with R. Ashwin.
Brief Scores:
India: 288 for 7 on 50 overs.(Virat Kohli 99, MS Dhoni 51 not out; Ravi Rampaul 4/60).
West Indies: 289 for 8 in 49.3 overs. (Darren Sammy 63, not out, Lendl Simmons 62; R Ashwin 2/37)
