It might have just been a warmup game, but India flexed those batting muscles again and some of those bowling ones too in a win over the West Indies at the Eden Gardens. Rohit Sharma was the star of the show with the bat, as India picked up a 45-run victory in Kolkata.
Batting first, Rohit found his range from ball one, like he has pretty much all the time this year, smashing the West Indies bowlers around left, right and centre on his way to an absolutely brilliant 98 not out (57b, 9x4, 7x6).
There is no ground Rohit likes more than the Eden Gardens and it showed the moment he walked out to bat. The West Indies bowlers weren't on form, but Rohit played a big part in getting them off their line. There were a couple of other decent contributions in there too, with Shikhar Dhawan striking 21 (17b, 3x4, 1x6) and Yuvraj Singh showing signs of that old form, yet again, with a nice 31 (20b, 3x4, 1x6).
India, without Virat Kohli coming in to bat, lost their way a little bit in the final overs, but the 185/6 in the 20 overs was always going to be a difficult one for West Indies to chase down.
So it proved to be, despite WI getting off to a storming start courtesy Johnson Charles and that man Chris Gayle.
MS Dhoni decided to open with spin at both ends and it did not work as Charles and Gayle laid into both R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh. The first two overs went for 26 runs and it looked like we might have a quick West Indies chase.
However, the man who has impressed so much since making his international debut – Jasprit Bumrah – broke the opening partnership, castling Gayle (20, 11b, 3x4, 1x6). Charles (18, 13b, 2x6) fell soon after to Mohammed Shami, finally fit enough to bowl, as India took control.
With the openers gone, West Indies lost their way in the chase, with the run rate dropping down drastically below seven as Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels also fell, and from there India eased to victory, bowling their opponents out for 140 in 19.2 overs.
India's next and final warmup game is Saturday, against South Africa.
