Celkon Mobiles Tri-series 2013: Virat Kohli Leads India to Win Match against West Indies by 102 Runs
India won its first league match in tri-series to keep the hopes of playing the final. The team defeated West Indies by a huge margin of 102 runs. A bonus point is also given to India. India will now need to win the match against Sri Lanka to ensure a berth in the finals.
Port of Spain: India won the league match that was played against West Indies in Celkon Mobiles tri series 2013 in style. India defeated West Indies by 102 runs and also won a bonus point. In a match which had to be won to keep the hopes the reaching the final alive, India showed an all round performance and defeated West Indies.
West Indies won the toss and asked India to bat first Opener Sikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma added 123 runs for the first wicket and gave a good start. Sikhar Dhawan scored 69 in 77 balls with eight fours and two sixes, Rohit Sharma scored 46 in 78 balls with five fours. This is the highest first wicket score for India in tri series. Dhawan was the first to go in the 23rd over. After sometime, Rohit was also out after some time. Raina and Kartik were also sent to pavilion and India lost 4 wickets for 16 runs. With Vijay and Jadeja’s wickets also falling, India was 221 for 6. Virat Kohli played in his natural style. He played all the West Indies bowlers easily. In the last over of the innings, he scored his 14th century. India set the target of 311 runs in 5 overs.
West Indies was to score 312 runs to win the match. But Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav restricted the batsmen. Bhuvneshwar claimed 3 wickets and gave only 2 runs. Umesh claimed 3 wickets and gave 32 runs. West Indies was all out for 171 runs in 34 overs. Due to rain, the target of West Indies was set for 274 runs in 39 overs. But it could score only 171 runs. This is the first defeat for West Indies in tri series and first win for India. Kohli was declared the man of the match.
India will now need to win the match against Sri Lanka to ensure a berth in the final of Celkon Mobiles tri-series 2013.
