India and West Indies met each other in the second ODI of the series at Vizag in another nail-biter. The match belonged to Indian captain Virat Kohli for his record-breaking achievement and to the young Windies batsmen Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer for giving India a mighty scare in the chase.
India won the toss and chose to bat first, which was a courageous decision from Virat Kohli with dew expected in second half and India playing three spinners.
Indian openers failed to give a substantial start to the team with Rohit falling to Roach for 4 and Dhawan falling for 29 to Nurse. But it was Virat Kohli who took over and with a 139-run partnership with Ambati Rayudu (73 in 80 balls) and pushed India over 300 in 50 overs.
In the process, he became the fastest batsman to 10,000 ODI runs in just 205 innings. He is the fifth Indian batsman to do so and 13th overall. He celebrated the feat with a humongous 157* in 129 balls with 4 sixes and 13 fours. India made 321/6 in 50 overs.
Ashley Nurse picked 2/46 and debutant Obed McCoy picked 2/71 for the Windies.
Mohammad Shami removed Kieran Powell to 18 and Kuldeep took care of Hemraj for 32. Marlon Samuels too fell for 13 runs, bowled by Kuldeep. However, then Shimron Hetmyer (94 in 64 balls with 7 sixes and 4 fours) and centurion Shai Hope added 143 runs for the 4th wicket and pushed Windies towards an unlikely win. The dew played a huge factor as Indian spinners found it hard to grip the ball and ball was coming onto the bat a lot quicker.
Chahal removed Hetmyer with the score on 221 and Kuldeep removed Rovman Powell for 18, leaving the job of finishing the match to Jason Holder and Hope.
The match went to the last over with 14 runs needed to win and it was bowled by Umesh Yadav. In a tense finish to the game, which saw a leg bye four and then a reverse flick causing Nurse to be dismissed. Shai Hope required five runs to win the match off the last ball and Umesh erred by bowling a full delivery outside off stump and Hope (123* with 10 fours and 3 sixes) hit it to boundary over point and match ended in a tied.
BRIEF SCORES:
IND 321/6 (V KOHLI 157*; A NURSE 2/46) tied match WI 321/7 (S HOPE 123*; K YADAV 3/63)
