India crush West Indies by nine wickets; Sehwag flops again

Trelawny, Jamaica, Mar 10 (UNI) Riding on pacers Munaf Patel (four for 10) and Irfan Pathan's (3/25) superb bowling performance, India crushed the West Indies by nine wickets with 31.3 overs to spare in their final World Cup warm-up match here.

However, the victory left one very important question unanswered -- what to do with Virender Sehwag? Chasing a paltry victory target of 86, with no pressure on, Sehwag failed once again to make use of the chance that came his way.

Given that this would be his last chance to return to form before the World Cup, the Delhi batsman should have spent more time at the crease and put up some runs under his belt, but he messed it up all over again.

Sehwag again made the mistake of attempting a drive without using his feet and Powell got the only wicket for the West Indies in the match as Ramdin took an easy catch behind the stumps. The Indian opener faced three balls before heading back to pavilion without a score.

It was left to Robin Uthappa (35) and Dinesh Karthik (38) to put up a unbeaten 86-run partnership for the second wicket to see India romp home to an easy nine-wicket victory in just 18.3 overs.

The warm-up match, which attracted good crowd, lasted barely 44.2 overs.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Sehwag had acknowledged that he needed to score runs for not just the team, but also for himself.

He had also agreed that his exclusion from the side that had toured the West Indies last summer had been justified. And today he could not have asked for a better opportunity. No pressure, a miniscule target, and he threw it away again.

Earlier, Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan ripped through the heart of West Indian batting line up as India bundled out the hosts for a paltry 85 runs in 25.5 overs. Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, along with Anil Kumble, chipped in with a wicket each.

Munaf Patel led the charge with the wickets of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Dwayne Smith and after his sixth over, he had given away a measly eight runs for all the havoc he had caused.

The Men in Blue could not have scripted this final warm-up game any better. It was a also vindication of the faith captain Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell had reposed on the composition of India's bowling attack for this tournament.

The nine wickets tumbled without even Anil Kumble or Harbhajan Singh getting to wrap their fingers around the white ball with Agarkar and Zaheer doing the early damage and Pathan and Munaf taking up the wicket-taking mantle thereafter. And all this after Brian Lara opted to take first strike when Dravid called the coin wrongly.

There were no devils in the pitch, and the sequence of falling wickets made for a baffling reading. One down for 14 (Chanderpaul), 2/14 (Gayle), 3/53 (Lara), 4/53 (Sarwan), 5/57 (Bravo), 6/61 (Pollard), 7/62 (Samuels), 8/62 (Ramdin) and 9/80 (Smith) happened even as the first lot of latecomer spectators were straggling into the picturesque stadium that sits yards away from the gleaming aquamarine of the Caribbean Sea.

What would have pleased his captain apart from Patel's burst was the way Pathan picked up his second and third wickets. Pathan's first casualty was Lara, fooled into trying to check his shot and lobbing a return catch.

Nineteen year old Keiron Pollard then played with a static feet to return to pavilion. Next to be dismissed was Marlon Samuels trapped leg before with a delivery that jags back at the batsman.

It was left for all-rounder Smith and Lendl Simmons to at least make a push towards the hundred mark for a side many here believe is capable of regaining World Cup glory for the Caribbean. Even that was torpedoed by Munaf's fourth wicket and then Kumble added shat to the hosts' wounds by claiming the last wicket to end the innings, leaving 24.1 overs unplayed.

UNI