Rampaul exploited a helpful Sabina Park pitch to collect four wickets for 37 runs from his allotment of 10 overs and earn the Man-of-the-Match award, after he trumped Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 130-ball 95, as West Indies dismissed India for 188 in 48.2 overs in the second ODI.
Runako Morton then hit the top score of 85 from 102 balls, and West Indies captain Chris Gayle smote 64 from 46 balls to emphasise the inadequacy of the target.
Morton, who opened the batting, had the privilege of lofting Harbhajan Singh over long-on for his only six to formalise the West Indies’ victory with 95 balls to spare.
The victory meant that the series is now level 1-1, after India won the opening match last Friday by 20 runs at the same venue.
The two teams head to St. Lucia for the last two ODIs on Friday and Sunday at the Beausejour Cricket Ground.
Gayle and Morton put West Indies firmly on track for victory, when they shared a first wicket stand of 101.
Gayle was typically brutal, when he struck eight fours and two sixes to give the West Indies innings the early momentum before Rohit Sharma had him caught at long-off in the 16th over.
Ramnaresh Sarwan was just getting into the swing of things, when he was stumped off Sharma for 15 after charging down the pitch, and being deceived with a well-flighted off-break to leave West Indies 132 for two in the 22nd over.
There were little or no further alarms for West Indies the rest of the way, although Morton and Chanderpaul occasionally raised heart rates with their running between the wickets.
They however, kept their composure, and navigated West Indies into harbour with an unbroken stand of 60 for the third wicket.
Sharma was India’s most successful bowler with two for 27 from eight overs.
Earlier, the West Indies’ fast medium bowlers, led by Rampaul, had India wobbling on 82 for eight in the 22nd over.
Dwayne Bravo bagged three for 26 from nine overs, and Jerome Taylor captured three for 35 from 9.2 overs.
Such was their impact that only two batsmen other than Dhoni reached double figures. They were Yuvraj Singh, a century-maker in the first ODI last Friday at the same venue, with 35, and Rudra Pratap Singh with 23.
West Indies typically allowed the Indians to fight back, as Dhoni led a rearguard action with an innings that included half-dozen fours and a pair of sixes.
West Indies were put on their heels, as Dhoni and Rudra Pratap Singh added 101 for the ninth wicket to beef-up India’s total.
Bravo eventually broke the partnership, when he had Singh caught at mid-wicket for 23, and Taylor ended India’s resistance, when he bowled Dhoni.
Taylor scalped the first wicket in the very first over, when Dinesh Karthik was caught behind for four.
But Rampaul set them back further, when he had Gautam Gambhir caught behind for a duck, and Sharma caught at gully for the same score in the space of three balls in the second over.
West Indies were then put under pressure, when Dhoni joined Yuvraj, and started a salvage operation.
Things swung decisively West Indies’ way however, when Yuvraj, who passed 7,000 runs in his innings, became the first of five wickets India lost for 28 runs in the space of 56 balls.
Taylor had Yuvraj caught behind in the 13th over, before Bravo had Yusuf Pathan caught at slip for a duck in the 15th, and Ravindra Jadeja caught behind for seven in the 18th.
Rampaul added the scalps of Harbhajan Singh caught behind for seven in the 21st over to give wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin the last of his five dismissals, and Praveen Kumar caught at slip for one in the 23rd over.
