The Indian team may not have an entourage of fans backing them. But that has not stopped them from doing their job, even if it has appeared labored at times.
Virat Kohli
The West Indies did keep their promise, to try to make a fist of a battle in the first two ODIs. However, their efforts began to wear thin as their innings drew to a close, allowing the second string Indian team led by the captain in Suresh Raina to meet the challenge and conquer it. If the first match was about Harbhajan Singh reeling in the West Indies towards the end of their innings to allow India to get to the target even if there was hard work in store for the batting innings, the second match saw Amit Mishra rise to the occasion as also, see a couple of young cricketers leave their mark in a rain affected match.
The rain delays brought Duckworth Lewis into play after the West Indies once again began promisingly but failed to finish with a flourish. Amit Mishra captured four wickets conceding only thirty-one runs as the West Indies underachieved once more, scoring 240 when they should have capitalized more on the half centuries from Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
However, rain revised the target and India got to the 187 due to a pugnacious half century from Parthiv Patel while Virat Kohli proved to be the hero on the day, scoring eighty-one runs to not only be the highest run scorer but also, the match winner at the end of the day for India.
The second victory for India at Port of Spain now means that India move up to a 2-0 lead in the series even as Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has to get his the hosts going to believe that if they could put up a fight, they could draw in another inch of inspiration in the five match series that will now witness a venue change.
For the Indian cricket team that has been largely dissected following the rest and injury relief provided to several of the regular members, they will quietly feel that they are doing the job asked of them while settling into impressive form with the new Indian coach, Duncan Fletcher. Now that the nerves will have eased with a 2-0 lead, it should propel the team to shake off the doubting shackles and put up a more confident show.
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