It was yet another dominating performance by the Indian team as they shrugged off hosts West Indies comfortably by 59 runs to win the second match at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first and Shikhar Dhawan departed early in the piece.
Rohit Sharma was also not in his elements and struggled to hit his stride but for captain Kohli, it was yet another dominating performance out on the field. He got going with an authoritative cover drive and never looked back.
Century looked inevitable
A 42nd century was notched up as the skipper zoomed past former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly to be the second most prolific run-scorer in the former for India. Reflecting on the innings, Kohli said that he had to step up since the openers did not get going as one of the top three has to always score runs for the side.
"Shikhar and Rohit didn't get a big one. One of the top three has always got the big one. A senior man had to step up and today was my opportunity to step up. It was important to string in a lot of dot balls," Kohli said at the end of the match.
The captain also said that he wanted to bat first since it became difficult for West Indies to bat in the middle phase of their chase.
"Exactly why we wanted to bat first. If you saw the later half of the West Indies innings, it was difficult to bat on. I think the rain in between helped them else it would have been tough to bat in the middle overs. We knew that anything over 270 would be challenging," he further added.
Kohli also noted that with the rain, the conditions became tricky for the bowlers as they struggled to grip the ball. "The batting became a little easy thanks to the rain when Hetymer and Pooran were batting together. It was tough gripping the ball when it went into the outfield. It was about staying in there and hoping one wicket will put pressure on them and luckily we got the wickets," said the captain.
With the first match washed out, India has now taken an unassailable lead in the 3-match series. West Indies now has to win the final match to draw level but it will be a difficult prospect, considering the form of this Indian team, especially the senior players.
