Motie, Shepherd claim three each as West Indies bowl out India for 181 in 2nd ODI

Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie (3/36) and pacer Romario Shepherd (3/37) shone with the ball as West Indies bowled out India for 181 in 40.5 overs in the second ODI at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday, July 29.

West Indies won the toss and elected to field first. India got off to a great start with the bat as openers Ishan Kishan (55 off 55) and Shubman Gill (34 off 49) added 90 in 16.5 overs. However, they collapsed in equally stunning fashion to lose 10 wickets for 91 runs. It did not help the visitors that their batting momentum was interrupted more than once due to rain.

Gill got into his groove by whacking Jayden Seales for two fours in the fourth over. A few overs later, Kishan also crunched consecutive boundaries off the same bowler. India got past the half-century mark without much trouble in the 11th over. In the 15th over of the innings, Kishan slammed the first six of the innings, launching Motie over long-on.

The left-hander reached his second consecutive fifty with a single off the left-arm spinner’s next over. The bowler, however, struck in the same over with a tossed-up delivery that Gill skewed to long-off. Kishan was the next to go, brilliantly caught by Alick Athanaze at backward point as he cut one from Shepherd.

With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli rested, Axar Patel was promoted to No. 4. The left-hander, however, managed only 1. He gloved a short ball from Shepherd that was angled towards his body.

Hardik Pandya (7) also perished cheaply, pulling a bouncer from Seales to midwicket. Sanju Samson too failed to grab yet another opportunity that came his way and fell for 9. The batter edged a sharply spinning delivery from Yannic Cariah to slip.

---

Indian batting continues to falter

Samson’s wicket was followed by a rain interruption, but India continued to struggle when play resumed. Ravindra Jadeja (10) also fell to the short ball, top-edging a pull off Shepherd to deep backward square leg. Suryakumar Yadav (24) disappointed again, cutting Motie to backward point, when Athanaze accepted another catch.

Shardul Thakur contributed 16 before being trapped leg before by a back-of-length scrambled seam delivery from Alzarri Joseph. The West Indies pacer also dismissed Umran Malik (0) in the same over as the fast bowler completely miscued a short ball and Keacy Carty took a brilliant catch, sliding across from deep square leg.

India’s disappointing innings came to an end when Mukesh Kumar (6) was caught at cover off Motie, getting a leading edge on a length ball.