IND VS WI - 4th ODI, Windies tour of India, 2018

That was as anticlimactic as a pivotal contest can possibly get. And that, right there, is the new India - they don't leave it till the 11th hour. Nope, nip it in the bud ASAP, and finish it off. The loss in the 3rd ODI would've given them a wake-up call, and they'll already be visualizing themselves playing the ultimate contest next year - the World Cup - and by extension, the final. They've done an exceptional job today, and perhaps the greatest find today was Khaleel Ahmed's true potential. Can he get some valuable experience and earn himself a ticket to the World Cup? What about Dhoni? Pant? Rayudu and Khaleel have been satisfying answers today, but Dhoni and Pant remain the questions. One more ODI to go at Thiruva... Trivandrum on Thursday, November the 1st. As of now, I, Rishi Roy, bid you goodbye, alongside Kumar Abhisekh Das, Raju Peethala, Sriram AS, and Shashikant Singh. Sayonara!

Rohit Sharma, Man of the Match: I've been doing some slip-catching for a while. I can hear Virat laugh there. Been doing that for a while now. Good to get some catches, and it is important to hold those catches as there will be catches coming at you all the time. Especially if you're fielding in the slips for Kuldeep, it isn't easy to read his hands. When you play him in the nets, it is easy to understand when he is going to bowl that googly and I got to be ready for it. Very clinical right from the start. After losing two wickets, I had mentioned this earlier about having a big partnership and that was a game-changing partnership. All the four games that we have played, we have had some big partnerships which has allowed us to stay in the game. Once you are set, you gotta make it count and that is what me and Rayudu did in the middle. We carried for as long as we did. That eventually turned out to be the match winning partnership. Heartening to see the way we bowled as bowling unit. It was a long time coming, this kind of performance from the bowlers. Really really happy to see a very dominating performance from the bowlers. The spinners were turning it, the pacers were swinging it, so all is well.

Virat Kohli, India captain: Yes, ticked all the boxes. It was a very clinical game in all three departments. Something that we are very proud of and happy with the fact that we got back into rhythm. Put under pressure by Windies in the last game but we are known to bounce back and it was another example of that. Rayudu has taken his opportunity with both hands. We need to back him till that big World Cup and give him more confidence. He is feeling good about his game and he is a very confident man. He reads the game really well, so we are happy that someone with intelligence is batting at number four. He (Khaleel) is a very exciting talent. If the pitch has something to offer, he can get the best out of it. Today, he really showed his bowling skills by moving it both ways. Pitching it in the right areas, not too full, not too short as well. I was very happy to see him pick up wickets and making the ball talk.

Jason Holder, WI captain: We didn't play well enough today. We allowed them to score too many runs. We never got going with the bat and the application definitely was not there. Lost wickets up front, and didn't bat well enough. Didn't get enough momentum. Run-outs are something that you don't want in One day or in any limited overs cricket. Two of our better players as well and it really set us back up front. It was a lot to do to rebuild to get up to 370 odd. You try not to get run-out, you try to build a partnership up front which we never got. Obviously I have been hearing that (batting up the order) for a long while. The structure of the team probably needs to be looked at and obviously I want to get up the order as well. Probably, next game you could see that.

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Presentations coming up...

Biggest wins for India in ODIs (by runs):
257 vs Ber, POS, 2007
256 vs HK, Karachi, 2008
224 vs WI, Mumbai BS, 2018 *
200 vs Ban, Dhaka, 2003
190 vs NZ, Vizag, 2016
Biggest defeats for WI in ODIs (by runs):
257 vs SA, SCG, 2015
224 vs Ind, Mumbai BS, 2018 *
209 vs SA, Cape Town, 2004
204 vs NZ, Christchurch, 2017
186 vs Eng, Bridgetown, 2017
Indian batsman outscoring the opposition in a completed ODI:
S Tendulkar (152) v Nam (130), Pietermaritzburg, 2003
Yuvraj (102*) v Ban (76), Dhaka, 2003
Rohit Sharma (264) v SL (251), Kolkata, 2014
Rohit Sharma (162) v WI (153), Mumbai BS, 2018 *

Khaleel Ahmed: It was there in my mind that there would be some moisture in the wicket given that we would bowl under lights and I would try to swing it. Once I got my line, I tried to persist with it. I am working on my bowling with Bharat Arun sir since I have been with the Indian team. I have been practicing a lot and implemented it today. I was bringing it in to him (Samuels) and then all of a sudden I bowled the out-swinger to trap him. I appeal sometimes out of excitement and also feel that I am having the batsman under pressure.

20:29 IST: Wow, what a no-contest. The anti-climax to trump (I still can't believe he's pres... never mind) all others. The parternship between Rohit and Rayudu didn't exactly make the bowler's anxious, as they came out all guns blazing. Bhuvneshwar picked up the first wicket for India, before 2 fantastic direct-hits by Kuldeep and Kohli dented the Windies top order and potentially increased their margin of defeat by a good 100 runs. Khaleel Ahmed rattled the middle-order with some excellent swing bowling before the mystery of Kuldeep and the nagging accuracy of Jadeja helped clean up the tail. India could have been more clinical with the tail, but Roach and Holder showed some good resistance at the end to make India stay in the field longer than they'd've liked before Kuldeep finished it off with his third. In the end, the Windies fell short of Rohit Sharma's individual score by 9 runs. #NuffSaid...

Kuldeep Yadav to Roach, out Bowled! The googly knocks him over! Pitches on middle-stump, Roach doesn't read it off the hand, and it sneaks past his defence to uproot off-stump and light up the bails. Taking the outside edge of the off-stump in fact. Kuldeep finishes with 3 wickets, and India finish up a clinical win, taking an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series. Roach b Kuldeep Yadav 6(27)

Kuldeep Yadav to Roach, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Kuldeep Yadav to Holder, 1 run, the chinaman again, turning into the pads, Holder gets deep in the crease and nudges it towards deep square leg for a single

Harsh K: As usual. The tail wagging against India. Seen this so many times recently.

Khaleel Ahmed to Roach, no run, back of a length delivery on the pads, nudged off the back foot in front of square leg

Khaleel Ahmed to Holder, 1 run, length delivery angling away, marginal width, driven on the up towards mid-off for a quick single

Khaleel Ahmed to Holder, no run, fuller length delivery on middle and leg, Holder misses the glance, hit on the pads, massive appeal, long appeal, but that was pitching outside leg-stump. The umpires aren't happy with the youngster's excessive appealing I think...

Khaleel Ahmed to Holder, no run, fuller length delivery, relatively so, still on a good length, Holder plays a closed-faced drive towards mid-off down the wicket

Khaleel Ahmed to Holder, no run, back of a length delivery angling away, Holder tries to drive off the back foot towards cover, gets beaten on the outside edge

Harsha Bhogle: Pluses for India: bowling of Khaleel, the catching of Rohit, the two direct hits at the start.

Khaleel Ahmed to Roach, 1 run, short and wide outside off, Roach throws his hands to drill it away through the covers, ends up chopping it off the under-edge towards short cover

K Khaleel Ahmed [4.0-0-11-3] is back into the attack

rohan: 145/9 after being reduced to 77/7 in a no pressure situation.Its the fourth consecutive match where India have failed to remove the tail cheaply against a comparably weaker side. Worrisome?

Kuldeep Yadav to Roach, leg byes, 1 run, turns into the pads, the regular chinaman again, Roach misses the nudge, and it deflects off the pads behind square leg for a leg-bye