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West Indies beat India by 14 runs

West Indies beat India by 14 runs in their World Twenty20 Super Eight Group F match at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on Saturday.

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Gayle powers Windies to 169 against India

West Indies captain Chris Gayle fell agonisingly short of an unprecedented second Twenty20 International hundred, as his side set India 170 to win their crucial World T20 Super Eights match.

Gayle struck five fours and seven sixes in a typically enterprising 98 from 66 balls, as West Indies, sent in to bat, reached 169 for six from their full 20 overs, after play started half-an-hour late because of a damp pitch.

He was run out going for a second run, when he failed to beat substitute fielder Dinesh Karthik’s throw from the cover boundary to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, off the second-last ball of the innings.

Gayle was dropped at square leg on 46, when he top-edged a pull off Ashish Nehra in the 12th over, with Dhoni, and short third man fielder Yusuf Pathan running into each other as the ball fell safely to the turf.

Gayle reached his 50 from 41 balls when, two balls later, a thick edge driving ferociously at Nehra flew to third man for his third four.

Fellow left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a passenger in an opening stand of 80 with Gayle, failed to make use of a dropped chance on 12, and was caught behind off Nehra from the penultimate ball of the 12th over.

Darren Sammy struck two fours and a six in 19 from 10 balls before he was caught on the long-on boundary off Ravindra Jadeja in the 16th over.

This brought the big-hitting Kieron Pollard to the crease. He struck two sixes in 17 from 11 balls before he was caught at long-on in the 19th over.

With Gayle nearing the milestone, both Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan sacrificed their wickets with miscued pulls to mid-wicket off Nehra, who ended with three wickets for 35 runs from his allotted four overs.

Gayle was the first of only four men to score a Twenty20 international hundred when he made 117, still the highest individual score at this level, against South Africa in the opening match of the inaugural World Twenty in Johannesburg in 2007.

Two of the other Twenty20 centuries have come at this tournament, with India’s Suresh Raina making 101 against South Africa in St Lucia on May 2 and, a day later, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene posting exactly 100 against Zimbabwe in Guyana.

Jayawardene just missed out on back-to-back hundreds, and the honour of becoming the first player to score two centuries at this level, when he made an unbeaten 98 against the West Indies in Sri Lanka’s 57-run win at Kensington here on Friday.

India were unchanged from their previous match against Australia, which they lost by 49 runs, also at Kensington on Friday.

West Indies brought Denesh Ramdin in to replace fellow wicketkeeper/batsman Andre Fletcher following their 57-run defeat by Sri Lanka.

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India opt to bowl against West Indies

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against the West Indies in their must-win Group F Super Eight match.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Dwayne Bravo, Dinesh Ramdin, Keiron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Suleiman Benn, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain-wicketkeeper), Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra