West Indies beat India despite Sharma’s 95

AHMEDABAD, India, (Reuters) – Rohit Sharma’s  sparkling 95 was in vain as West Indies beat India by 16 runs in  the third one-day international to stay afloat in the five-match  series at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium today.
Having dropped Sharma on 33, West Indies skipper Darren  Sammy redeemed himself with a direct throw in the 44th over as  India, chasing 261 for a third successive win that would have  sealed the series, folded for 244 in 46.5 overs.
Sharma’s 100-ball knock, which included 10 hits to the fence  and a six, was his third successive half-century in the series  which his team lead 2-1.
Ravi Rampaul (4-57) derailed India’s chase almost as soon as  it began by removing the scoreless duo of captain Virender  Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir with his first two deliveries.
Sehwag edged to depart caught behind while Gambhir was  trapped leg before, leaving India tottering on eight for two  wickets.
Barring opener Parthiv Patel (39), none of the Indian top  order batsmen could do justice to their reputation and it was  Sharma’s 91-run seventh-wicket stand with Ravichandran Ashwin  (31) that took India near the target.
West Indies were put into bat and Marlon Samuels top-scored  with a sedate 58 but it was the unbeaten 79-run stand between  Sammy (41 not out) and Andrew Russell (40 not out) off 5.4 overs  that helped West Indies to overcome a sluggish start and post  260 for five.
The visitors lost opener Lendl Simmons (1) in the third over  and were also denied the service of another in-form player,  Darren Bravo (26), when the batsman retired hurt with a  hamstring problem.
Samuels tried to steady the innings but the run rate  nosedived, prompting him to go after Umesh Yadav in the 19th  over, hitting the bowler for a couple of fours and a six.
West Indies lost three cheap wickets to slump to 181 for  five in the 45th over before Sammy paired up with Russell to  provide the late surge to power them past 250.
Sammy hit Abhimanyu Mithun for two sixes and as many fours  in the 49th over, while Russell struck two fours and a six off  the final over sent down by Yadav.
West Indies milked 93 runs off the last seven overs and 43  off the last two.
Indore hosts the fourth one-dayer on Thursday.