Windies crash to nine-wicket defeat against India A

Topscorer for the West Indies Marlon Samuels is LBW to Keon Sharma. (photo courtesy of WICB website)

MUMBAI, India, CMC West Indies crashed to an embarrassing nine wicket defeat against India A in their opening tour match played at Brabourne Stadium here yesterday

 Topscorer for the West Indies Marlon Samuels is LBW to Keon Sharma. (photo courtesy of WICB website)
Topscorer for the West Indies Marlon Samuels is LBW to Keon Sharma. (photo courtesy of WICB website)

A half century from Marlon Samuels saved the visitors some embarrassment but they crumbled against the Indian spinners and were bowled out for 148 in 38.1 overs after winning the toss and deciding to bat.

Unmukt Chand  belted a half century in a 77 run unbeaten partnership with  Murali Vijay for the first wicket as India A cruised to victory, losing one  wicket in the process with  147 balls remaining.

Most of the West Indies batsmen, with the exception of Samuels, looked uncomfortable against the Indian attack which included Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah and Amit Mishra who destroyed the middle order to curb any hopes of a recovery.

Mishra, who grabbed three for 26, removed the stumps of Darren Sammy, the captain for the game, and Kieron Pollard in successive overs to reduce West Indies to 76 for 6 after they were shaping to rebuild the innings at 70 for four.

Test captain Denesh Ramdin provided brief support to Marlon Samuels in a fourth-wicket stand that produced 32 runs which ended when Ramdin slashed at a Stuart Binny delivery and was caught by a diving Unmukt Chand at second slip. Samuels soldiered on by scoring with powerful shots through off and down the ground in a top score of 56 which included nine fours.

The West Indies alarming collapse occurred in the presence of the former captain and now the chief selector Clive Lloyd and Richard Pybus, the director of cricket

Leon Johnson looked uncomfortable before outside-edging an angled delivery to second slip in the fourth over, Lendl  Simmons retired with a troublesome back and Darren Bravo stroked a couple of boundaries  then  lost his stumps.

Apart from the 28 extras and Samuels’ 56, the contribution of the remaining 10 men was just 64 which included the second best score of 21 from Jason Holder. India A reached their target comfortably with Chand leading the way with his top score of  79 not out in which he struck 11 fours and two sixes. Pacer Kemar Roach picked up the only Indian wicket by removing Vijay for 26, caught Samuels.

West Indies and India A will meet again in a second limited overs warm-up game on Sunday at the same venue.
Scoreboard
WEST INDIANS innings
L Simmons retired out                                                 12
L Johnson c Chand b Bumrah                                        0
DM Bravo b Kulkarni                                                     9
M Samuels lbw b Sharma                                           56
D Ramdin† c Chand b Binny                                         7
K Pollard* b Mishra                                                       2
D Sammy b Mishra                                                      0
J Holder st †Samson b Parvez Rasool                          21
J Taylor b Mishra                                                           0
K Roach not out                                                          10
R Rampaul b Sharma                                                  3
Extras (lb 9, w 18, nb 1)                                                28
Total (all out; 38.1 overs)                                        148
Fall of wickets 1-11 (Johnson), 2-34 (Simmons), 3-38 (Bravo), 4-70 (Ramdin), 5-75 (Pollard), 6-76 (Sammy), 7-123 (Samuels), 8-124 (Taylor), 9-144 (Holder), 10-148 (Rampaul)
Bowling: Kulkarni 6-2-14-1,Bumrah 6-0-46-1, Mishra 10-1-26-3, Binny 6-0-19-1, Sharma  7.1-1-27-2, Rasool 3-1-7-1.

INDIA A innings
M Vijay c Samuels b Roach                                         26
U Chand not out                                                        79
K Nair not out                                                             28
Extras (lb 5, w 10, nb 1)                                                   16
Total  (1 wicket; 25.3 overs)                                    149
Did not bat S Samson†, M Tiwary*, S Binny, J Bumrah, Parvez Rasool, D Kulkarni, A Mishra, K Sharma
Fall of wickets 1-71 (Vijay)
Bowling: Rampaul -6-1-25-0, Taylor 5-0-25-0, Holder 3-0-25-0, Samuels 7-0-35-0, Roach 4-0-28-1, Pollard 0.3-0-6-0.
Toss – West Indians, who chose to bat
Umpires – RM Deshpande and PG Pathak
Match referee – M Nayyar