Ravindra Jadeja broke the back of the West Indies batting with a career-best five-wicket haul before Darren Sammy provided the late flourish to lift West Indies to 233 for nine in a group B Champions Trophy match against India here today.
At one stage crossing 200-run mark looked difficult for the West Indies as they were reeling at 179 for eight, but Sammy played a blistering knock, which had five fours and four sixes, to give the bowlers something to fight for.
Sammy creamed paceman Ishant Sharma for 21 runs in the penultimate over, hitting him for two fours and as many sixes, as West Indies scored 51 runs off the last four overs.
West Indies had made a decent start, reaching 103 for one in about 20 overs but Jadeja (5/36) picked up three West Indian wickets in a space of 14 balls which proved to be the turning point of the innings.
The wicket of opener Johnson Charles, LBW to the Jadeja after scoring a classy 60, opened the floodgates as West Indies slid from 103 for two to 109 for four wickets.
Given the overcast conditions, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to field after winning the toss on an Oval track that was used for the low-scoring Pakistan versus West Indies game on Friday.
But only Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the right length from the Pavilion End with the new ball. Umesh Yadav, from the Vauxhall End, was expensive conceding 11 in his first over and was promptly taken off.
The West Indian openers looked to be settling down quickly as Chris Gayle scored three lovely boundaries, including a couple of exquisite ones off Yadav at mid-wicket.
Dhoni had marked out the left-handed Jamaican as the dangerman in the West Indian camp and it was Bhuvneshwar, who answered his captain's call for an early breakthrough.
Gayle was the first to go, chasing an angling Bhuvneshwar delivery outside off-stump. The healthy edge was brilliantly taken by the tall Ravichandran Ashwin at first slip. Gayle scored 21 off 18 balls and hit four boundaries.
