Brilliant India grabbed the semi – final spot

India 2-236 (Shikhar Dhawan 102*, Rohit Sharma 52, Dinesh Karthik 51*, Sunil Narine 2-49) beat West Indies 9-233 (Johnson Charles 60, Darren Sammy 56*, Ravindra Jadeja 5-36) by eight wickets.

Ravindra Jadeja demolished the batting line up of West Indies and Shikhar Dhawan blasted consecutive ton in the tournament as India qualified for the top four.

The Windies managed 233 for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 50 overs and the Blue Shirts hammered 236 with 8 wickets in hand and 10.5 overs to spare.

Ravindra Jadeja (India) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his lethal bowling spell of 5-36 in 10 overs.

The 6th match of the 2013 Champions Trophy was played on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, at Kennington Oval, London.

Earlier, MS Dhoni, the skipper of India, won the toss and put the Caribbeans in to bat first. Chris Gayle along with Johnson Charles started off reasonably well by scoring 25 runs in 4.5 overs as the first was caught behind by Ravichandran Ashwin off Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 21 on the next ball. Darren Bravo and Charles steadied the innings as the latter hit 7 fours in the coming overs. Charles attainted his maiden ODI fifty in the 17th over assisted by a six but was declared leg before wicket off Ravindra Jadeja for 60 off 55 balls with 2 lofty sixes and 7 fours.

Ravindra Jadeja - Deadly bowling in the match
Ravindra Jadeja – Deadly bowling in the match

Ravindra Jadeja penetrated through the middle order, got another two wickets in no time and the Windies were in trouble at 4-109 after 24 overs. The captain of West Indies, Dwayne Bravo, tried to stabilise the innings with his brother, Darren Bravo, and they took the score to 140 in 33 overs. Darren Bravo was smartly stumped by Dhoni off Ashwin for 35 as Kieron Pollard associated with Dwayne Bravo. Pollard hit 2 sixes in the 35th over as Dwayne Bravo was gone for 25 at the total of 163. Pollard followed him eight runs later for 22 as Darren Sammy gave some respect to the total with a brisk knock. Sammy remained unbeaten for 56 off just 35 deliveries with 4 mighty sixes and 5 fours as the Caribbeans reached 9-233 in 50 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja was the star of the day with five wickets whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin shared one wicket each.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan went off to a flying start by smashing 66 runs in 10 overs with 4 fours from the first and 5 from the latter. Rohit achieved his 15th ODI fifty in the 15th over and was caught behind by Charles off Sunil Narine for 52 off 56 with 7 well executed fours. The openers contributed 101 in 15.3 overs as Virat Kohli got in next and hit 4 fours in the next three overs. He was clean bowled by Narine at 127 in 20 overs at his individual feat of 22 runs off 18 with 4 fours.

Shikhar Dhawan went past the fifty runs mark in the same over and the incoming batsman, Dinesh Karthik, was given out for a duck by the field umpire Aleem Dar. The batsman opted for a review instantly and was declared not out by the third umpire as Dhawan kept on cruising with regular boundaries. Karthik was assisting his senior partner nicely at his end and the second hundred of the innings appeared on board in the 35th over. Rain interrupted the game after 35.1 overs for about 30 minutes and the Men in Blue were 76 runs ahead at that moment as per D/L method.

Shikhar Dhawan plundered his back to back hundred in the tournament with a grand six over the backward point boundary. Dinesh Karthik thrashed his 7th ODI half century on the first ball of the 40th over with a four and won the match for his country. Dhawan secured his end for 102 off 107 comprising 1 six and 10 fours whereas Karthik was at the other end at 51 from 54 balls with 8 fours as the Blue Shirts amassed 236 runs after losing just two wickets.

India grasped the important encounter with a huge margin of eight wickets and jumped into the semi-final with one pool game still available against their arch rivals Pakistan.


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