Rohit would ‘love’ to play Test series against Pakistan in neutral venue
Bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan has been put on hold since Misbah-ul-Haq’s team last toured India to play a three-match ODI series way back in 2012-13.
India on Wednesday defeated West Indies by 107 runs in the second ODI of the three-match series at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Rohit Sharma was declared Man of the Match for his swashbuckling knock of 159 runs off 138 balls. His blitzkrieg included 17 boundaries and 5 sixes.
Earlier, West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard had won the toss and opted to bowl against India on a batting track.
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Men in Blue scored 387 for 5 in 50 overs to set a mammoth target for the West Indies to chase. Rohit and KL Rahul shared a 227-run opening stand before the latter fell to Alzarri Joseph on his individual score of 102. But the India vice-captain carried on his carnage and amassed 159 runs before falling to Sheldon Cottrell.
Shreyas Iyer’s 53 off 32 and Rishabh Pant’s 39 off 16 towards the end helped India reach a gigantic total. For Windies, Cottrell finished with the figures of 83 for 2 in 9 overs, while in terms of economy Jason Holder with the figures none for 45 in 9 overs was the best bowler.
During their chase, West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals and hence got bundled out for 280 runs in 43.3 overs as Kuldeep Yadav claimed his second international hat-trick.
Kuldeep’s first wicket was Shai Hope (78), who went for a sweep off the third ball of the over hoping to get it over the boundary but Indian captain Virat Kohli caught it right at the edge of the boundary. Kuldeep then deceived Jason Holder and got him stumped out in flight with a googly. The left-arm spinner’s third victim was Alzarri Joseph, who got an outside edge on the ball and Kedar Jadhav did well to hold on to it at second slip.
Notably, West Indies had won the first ODI and hence the series is levelled at 1-1. The decider match will be played on Sunday in Cuttack.
Brief scores: India 387 for 5 (Rohit Sharma 159, KL Rahul 102; Sheldon Cottrell 2 for 83) defeated West Indies 280 (Shai Hope 78, Nicholas Pooran 75; Mohammed Shami 3 for 39) by 107 runs.
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