India sealed the ODI series win against West Indies on Wednesday by winning the second match at the Narendra Modi Stadium Ahmedabad by 44 runs in an all-round performance. After Suryakumar Yadav (64) and KL Rahul (49) powered India to a moderate total of 237–9, West Indies were bowled out for 193 in 46 overs with Krishna taking 4-12 from his nine overs.
West Indies had reduced India to a troublesome position of 43-3 at the start of their innings after winning the toss and decided to field. Kemar Roach dismissed India captain Rohit Sharma for 5 whereas West Indies all-rounder Odean Smith did well to remove the makeshift opening batsman Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli for identical scores of 18.
This was when Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul partnered to take India ahead, adding 90 runs for the fourth wicket from only 106 balls. Suryakumar was the star of the Indian innings as he batted responsibly and in a commanding manner to score 64 from 83 balls with the help of 5 boundaries.
On the other hand, however, Rahul was unlucky as he was run out for 49 following her horrendous mixup in the middle with Suryakumar. Rahul faced 48 balls to score 49, for which he hit 4 boundaries as well as 2 sixes.
Towards the end of India’s innings, Washington Sundar contributed with 24 from 41 balls with the help of 1 boundary whereas specialist all-rounder Deepak Hooda made 29 from 25 balls with a couple of hits to the fence. The West Indies bowlers were very impressive, particularly Alzarri Joseph, who returned with 10-0-36-2 whereas Smith took 2-29 while sending down 7 overs.
In their reply, West Indies were once again ordinary with the bat, losing wickets at regular intervals to concede the game to India. Krishna was unplayable on Wednesday on a fresh wicket at the Ahmedabad stadium, extracting plenty of bounce and pace to threaten the West Indies batsmen, removing the likes of Brandon King (18), Darren Bravo (1), Nicolas Pooran (9) and Kemar Roach (0).
For the West Indies, the middle order batsman Shamarh Brooks was the top scorer with 44 from 64 balls with 2 boundaries and 2 sixes, followed by the second best performance with the bat coming from Akeal Hosein, who made 34 from 52 balls with 3 boundaries. Shai Hope fell after getting a start, having scored 27 from 54 balls with 3 boundaries whereas Smith was dangerous with the bat towards the end, hitting 2 sixes and 1 four to make 24 from just 20 balls.
The third and final ODI of the series will be played at the same venue on February 12, before the two teams move on to Eden Gardens in Kolkata to play a three match T20 series.