Kohli’s century helped India to set a huge target of 331 runs which West Indies failed to achieve & thus won the 4th ODI against West Indies by 59 runs. With this victory India also won the 5 matches ODI series against West Indies by 2-1.
Match Report: India v West Indies; 4th ODI, Dharamsala, 17th October, 2014.
West Indies after winning the toss gave India the opportunity to set the target and India rightly took advantage of the opportunity. Kohli scored his 20th ODI century facilitated by half-centuries from Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane. Batsmen’s effort put a mammoth target on the scoreboard which was difficult for West Indies to achieve but remained unattainable due to West Indian players’ lack of interest in the play.
Payment disputes between the West Indian board & players end up in cutting short their tour to four ODI’s and returning back home as soon as the on-going match would finish. The news of the cancellation of last ODI came during India's innings which ended up with West Indian players’ indifferent attitude towards the fielding & bowling.
Bowlers didn’t care much about the line and length, the bouncy pitch could have been very handy for them if they would have used the pace sensibly but bowlers didn’t put much effort. They were eager to bowl short, though, and continued to do so throughout the innings. Indian batsmen took advantage of the situation from the beginning.
Andre Russell combined pace with bounce and broke the 70 runs opening stand as Dhawan got out in the 12th over. Rahane then paired up with Kohli and build up a composed 72 runs partnership with him but he remained unlucky as he had to go back when on 68 owing to an incorrect lbw decision.
Raina stepped in & together with Kohli added 138 runs to the scoreboard. Raina scored 71 runs while Kohli scored 127 runs before getting run out on the last ball of the innings. West Indies was totally lost in the field, dropped chances, overthrows and misfields piled up with no serious effort to win the game.
While chasing down Samuells showed the resistance in front of bowlers and scored a century but there was no other player who could support him on the other end. Darren Bravo & Russell scored 40 & 46 runs respectively, besides them none of the players came with a supporting performance.
Whole of the West Indian team got out in the penultimate over at the score of 271 runs. India won the ODI series against West Indies by 2-1 as the third ODI was washed out due to cyclone while 5th ODI has been cancelled down to internal disputes of West Indian Board.
Scorecard:
India 330 for 6 (Kohli 127, Raina 71, Rahane 68) beat West Indies 271 (Samuels 112, Bhuvneshwar 2-25, Akshar 2-26) by 59 runs.
Man of the Match: Virat Kohli (India)