Player of the Match
Player of the Match

So another rollercoaster game in this series. Never expected it to come this close after India slipped to 105 for 6, but once again Ashwin showed his ability with the bat, and the tailenders gave West Indies some tense moments. The star of the Indian batting, though, was Rohit Sharma making his third fifty in a row. You can't keep winning though if four of your specialist batsmen aren't making runs.

For West Indies, Rampaul was outstanding with the ball, and Sunil Narine showed the temperament and variety to suggest he could become West Indies' permanent lead spinner in the limited-overs format. The fielding was a mix of sublime and substandard, exemplified by Sammy's direct hit to end Rohit's special innings and the two sitters Sammy put down earlier in the innings.

Nikesh: "You could feel sorry for Mithun and Yadav but then again, it was their death overs bowling that let the WI total get so high."

Presentation ceremony
Virender Sehwag: "when two big hitters like Russell and Sammy were batting it was difficult, they were connecting well, I told my boys to bowl as many yorkers as they can, they tried but couldn't get perfect yorkers, but the team fought really well. It is very heard to chase when your top order fails, in last few games lower order is scoring more than the top order. Till the time Rohit was there, we thought we could win the game, unfortunately he got run out and missed his century too."

Darren Sammy: "It was a good fight back from the boys, the way we batted, that spell from Rampaul, Samuels bowled well, the debutant Narine also, we stuck to it, it was a team effort. Sharma tried to take it way but we stuck at it. Narine came here in the CLT20 and bowled in the pressure situations, he's used to it, it's a role he has performed for T&T."

Man of the Match is Ravi Rampaul: " I think everything's working in my favour, I hope we can keep up with this form. We needed to get a positive start, we needed to get early wickets. The ball swung around a little bit, not much off the pitch. I think Narine really bowled well for us on debut, kept the pressure on. The pressure was there when I bowled the last over, but I just backed myself to perform. Hopefully, we'll be confident after this win and ready for the battles ahead."

Both Rampaul and Sammy were booed by the crowd as they came up for the post-match presentation. Not exactly the best behaviour from the Motera crowd, who also booed Ponting after the World Cup quarter-final. And this after they got to watch a gripping match with loads of twists and turns.

Nitin Sundar is putting the final touches to his match report. Click here to read it.

That's it from us for today. Thanks for the many, many mails. See you all at the next game. Goodnight!

46.5
W
Rampaul to Mithun, OUT, West Indies have the win, a massive grin on Gibson's face, it was getting tense but India's record home run in ODIs is over, Rampaul was the man who caused the damage early on, and he's back to finish it off, a yorker strikes the pad in front of the stumps, Rampaul belts out an appeal, and sets off on a celebratory run, though the umpire hasn't raised his finger, it takes Asnani an eternity to rule that out, and West Indies stay alive in this series

A Mithun lbw b Rampaul 23 (25m 16b 2x4 2x6) SR: 143.75

46.4
0
Rampaul to Mithun, no run, plenty of confidence in Mithun's batting, gets forward and drives that towards extra cover
46.3
4
Rampaul to Mithun, FOUR, four more, Rampaul has his hands on his head after that one, nothing streaky about that, short of length ball just outside off, wonderfully timed as he guides that behind backward point for four
46.2
1
Rampaul to Yadav, 1 run, clips this off the pads for a single, Mithun on strike
46.1
4
Rampaul to Yadav, FOUR, the crowd is getting terribly excited now, as Umesh gets another boundary, short of length ball just outside off, Umesh fishes at it and gets a thick outside edge, past third man for four more, Duncan Fletcher in the dressing room is impassive as ever

END OF OVER:
46 | 8 Runs | IND: 235/9 (26 runs required from 24 balls, RR: 5.10, RRR: 6.50)

  • Abhimanyu Mithun19 (13b)
  • Umesh Yadav6 (8b)
  • Kemar Roach10-0-54-1
  • Sunil Narine10-0-34-2

Adarsh: "Nice gesture by Darren sammy, shook hands with Rohit after his run-out. I am a die hard Indian cricket fan but seem to like this Windies side. Don't mind seeing them win. "

45.6
2
Roach to Mithun, 2 runs, full ball on the pads, whips it towards square leg for a couple
45.5
4
Roach to Mithun, FOUR, a full toss from Roach, Mithun goes for a big swing, ends up slicing it past backward point for four, third man is very fine for a bowler of Roach's pace
45.4
0
Roach to Mithun, no run, skips beyond leg and looks to whip that to the leg side, Roach can't believe he hasn't hit the stumps, the yorker whistles past leg
45.3
0
Roach to Mithun, no run, a full toss outside off, Roach grunts with the effort as he flings it in, Mithun misses as he attempts to bunt that to the off side
45.2
1
Roach to Yadav, 1 run, a short of length ball, flat-batted hit attempt, horribly mistimed but has enough on it to beat the bowler, a single is taken

Free-hit

45.2
1nb
Roach to Yadav, 1 no ball, tries the yorker this time, whipped towards midwicket, can't beat the fielder, Roach has overstepped
45.1
0
Roach to Yadav, no run, slants in towards off, a length ball, pushed towards mid-on

No.10 and No. 11 have a long chat in the middle. Roach has the ball - he'll be looking for the yorker to finish this off

India 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st8V SehwagPA Patel
2nd0G GambhirPA Patel
3rd35PA PatelV Kohli
4th36PA PatelRG Sharma
5th5SK RainaRG Sharma
6th21RG SharmaRA Jadeja
7th91R AshwinRG Sharma
8th4R Vinay KumarRG Sharma
9th16RG SharmaA Mithun
10th28A MithunUT Yadav