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India needs to shrug off its complacency

Despite a mammoth total, it nearly lost the plot in the first ODI

— Photo: AFP

STAR PERFORMER: India would be looking to Yuvraj Singh to deliver the goods yet again when it clashes with the West Indies in the second ODI on Sunday.

KINGSTON: India, after surviving a scare in the opening match, goes into the second ODI against the West Indies on Sunday fully aware that it needs to maintain the intensity throughout the game to take a 2-0 lead.

The Indians squeezed out a 20-run win in the first ODI on Friday and appeared a little complacent in the final stages of the contest. They nearly paid the price for it.

The close encounter will serve as a wake-up call for the visitors who are determined to make amends for their World Twenty20 championship debacle by clinching the four-match series.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has already warned his teammates not to get complacent and it remains to be been seen how the Indians respond to their captain who finds himself under some pressure now.

Missing Sehwag

The Indians clearly miss the dashing Virender Sehwag at the top of the order, but all credit to Dinesh Karthik who scored 67 in the first game when asked to open.

The left-handed Gautam Gambhir has not been in good nick and the Delhi batsman will be keen to rediscover his touch.

Yuvraj Singh, who clobbered the West Indies bowlers in his knock of 131 in the first game, has been in excellent form. Once again, he would have to shoulder the responsibility of taking India to a healthy total.

For India, bowling in the slog overs continued to be an area of concern and the West Indies tail was allowed to wag. Despite picking up seven wickets in 40 overs, the Indian bowlers failed to finish things off. They were wayward too, conceding 29 extras.

In Dhoni’s own words, giving fast bowler Ashish Nehra the ball in the closing stages was a gamble which paid off.

“It was a gamble. We were thinking of giving that over to an off-spinner or a pacer. Finally, we chose a pacer as there was some reverse swing,” he said.

Dhoni admitted that the bowlers had to toil hard to defend the mammoth total of 339 as the players got complacent after removing the West Indies top-order.

“Most of the guys thought that we had won the game when West Indies was seven wickets down. It was a mistake and hopefully we won’t repeat that. It was closer than we thought,” Dhoni said.

West Indies, which made a brave effort despite losing wickets at regular intervals, will surely look to bounce back and draw parity in the series.

It needed a big knock from one player the way Yuvraj did for India with the others playing a supporting role.

The West Indies bowlers, who applied the breaks twice but still let India post a big score, need to pull up their socks. The bowling was anything but disciplined, and the bowlers failed to maintain the right line and length on the slow track.

Good effort

Skipper Chris Gayle said his batsmen had failed to capitalise on the good start.

“We came close and the effort can’t be faulted for the way we went about it. I think we had a good start and a couple of top-order batsmen got starts too. We should have capitalised on it,” he said.

“It was a good effort. We batted well. Shiv (Chanderpaul) played a top innings at the top,” Gayle added.

The teams (from):

India: M.S. Dhoni (Capt.), Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan, Murali Vijay, S. Badrinath, R.P. Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Karthik.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (Capt.), Denesh Ramdin, Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard Jr, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor.

Match begins at 8 p.m. (IST). — PTI

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