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!
A Mithun lbw b Rampaul 23 (25m 16b 2x4 2x6) SR: 143.75
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. "
Free-hit
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