tossed up outside off, and that is the win for India. Goes for a drive through cover, maybe, gets a thick outside edge that runs away towards the fine third man boundary
West Indies vs India, 28th Match, Pool B at Perth, Mar 06 2015 - Ball by Ball Commentary
10.00pm Phew. Long day, even if we only saw a total of 83.3 overs of play. That's it from all of us. Make sure you join us for the two games tomorrow, and keep sending in your comments. Until then, ta ta!
DM: "Sooo...how would this be for a situation - Pak beat SA, India beat Ireland, WI beat UAE, Zimbabwe beat Ireland & India, Ireland beat Pak. Four teams will be on six points! (technically SA can too if they lose to UAE, but that's not happening)."
MS Dhoni: I think it was a difficult wicket, even initially with the new ball. There was some variable bounce, it was doing a bit. It settled down later, there was some swing for the West Indies bowlers as well, with the new ball. Our bowlers didn't try too much, they stuck to their line and length, it had a bit more bounce, gave quite a few wides bowling bouncers, but we also got wickets with the bouncer, so very happy with our performance. It is a difficult target, because you don't know whether to go and play your shots. It was a good chance to test out lower middle order. Ashwin played well, Jadeja will have to step up, I feel. The last time we were in New Zealand, there were true wickets, we'll have to see what kind of wickets are provided, but generally the ball comes on, there is some bounce. Generally the grounds are small so that is one area where we will have to adjust."
Jason Holder: "No regrets about batting first. Always thought it would be a good wicket. We lost early momentum, and it was difficult to recover. We didn't apply ourselves well enough when we batted and we never really caught up in the game. Batting out the overs was my plan, but I still thought we needed runs to have a chance, unfortunately I gave it away at the end. We need to string together a complete game."
Mohammed Shami is the man of the match. Ian Bishop doesn't interview him, for some reason. Some of you are suggesting it's because of Shami's lack of English proficiency, but how difficult would it be for the Indian team to send someone along to interpret for him? Even generally, it's always rankled me that players aren't simply allowed to speak in the language they're most comfortable in, and take an interpreter along. We always miss out on interesting insights because of this insistence on doing everything in English.
9.45pm That's India's eighth win in a row in World Cup matches. It equals their previous longest World Cup winning streak, achieved in 2003. In the end, bizarre tactics from Jason Holder. Plenty of overs left from his seamers, but he chose to bowl Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith with just 20-odd left to get. I don't know if that would have made any difference to the result, but it made things awfully simple for Dhoni and Ashwin. A few wobbles in India's chase, but Dhoni did what he does best, played the percentages, kept things simple, and carried India over the line.
Malav: "That's because Holder has Smith and Samuels in his fantasy team! :P"
full on leg stump, clipped away to long leg
short and wide and Dhoni gets on his toes to slap it away to the right of cover. He absolutely loves that shot, swivelling through his hips to get that power
back of a length outside off, dabbed away to third man
back of a length, angling into off stump, defended back to the bowler
back of a length outside off, and Dhoni steers it away towards third man, maybe hit it a bit finer than he intended, off the outside half of the bat
short, sits up at waist height, pulled away to deep square leg
Wajid Jawaid: "Smith and Samuels bowling with there still being a realistic chance to win! I am sorry Mr Holder, even being a young captain is not an excuse for this kind of mistake "
tossed up outside off, gets his front foot across and nurdles it towards square leg
flighted outside off, presses forward to block it back to the bowler
tossed up outside off, plonks his front foot forward to push it to short midwicket
back of a length outside off, steered away to the left of short third man
back of a length outside off, flat-batted down to long-on
tossed up on off stump, poked back towards the bowler, was in the air for a little bit
short outside off, sits up nicely for Dhoni to pull to deep midwicket
full, down the leg side, clipped away to the right of fine leg
back of a length outside off, uses his wrists to work it away towards mid-on
full on middle stump, tucked away through square leg
full outside off, driven to mid-off
short ball, Ashwin can't connect with the hook
starts with a poor ball, back of a length, angling down the leg side
The doctor returns. I'm quite bemused by this.