Clinical India thrash West Indies by 125 runs

Indian bowlers led by the deadly Mohammed Shami produced yet another splendid performance to put their team on the cusp of a semifinal berth with a 125-run rout of the West Indies in their sixth World Cup encounter at Manchester on Thursday.

With 11 points, India are now almost through and another win in their next three games will seal their position in the top four as West Indies were knocked out with two games remaining.

India scored 268/7, riding on half-centuries by Virat Kohli (72 off 82 balls) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56 off 61 balls) and it turned out to be good enough as West Indies were shot out for 143 in only 34.2 overs.

In two successive matches now, the bowlers have more than covered up for a mediocre show from the batsmen, save skipper Kohli.

Shami (4/16 in 6.2 overs) was at his best in the first spell as he first bounced Chris Gayle out and then bowled an off-cutter to remove Shai Hope.

In his second spell, he got Shimron Hetmyer while his new-ball partner Jasprit Bumrah (2/9 in 6 overs) was fast and accurate getting two wickets off successive deliveries.

Kuldeep Yadav (1/35 in 9 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/39 in 7 overs) were too hot for the Caribbean batsmen on a track, where run-scoring became increasingly difficult with passage of time.

The last seven wickets fell for 63 runs in a space of 14 overs which indicated the Caribbean plight.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar with his incisive swing bowling has always been Chris Gayle's (6 off 19 balls) nemesis. But it was in-form Shami in his absence who drew the first blood with a short ball that climbed on the big man and his mistimed pull was taken by Kedar Jadhav, running sideways from his mid-on position.

Hope, West Indies' next big hope, got one from Shami that breached his defence.

Sunil Ambris (31, 40 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (28 off 50 balls) steadied the ship with a 55-run stand before both were dismissed in quick succession.

Hardik Pandya trapped Ambris plumb in-front before Pooran mistimed a lofted shot to Shami in the deep.

The skipper Jason Holder then played a rank bad shot off Chahal as West Indies were knocked out of the contest at the halfway stage, reeling at 98 for five.

Earlier, Dhoni scratched around for the better part of his innings before exploding in the final over to take India to 268 for 7 on a track that look good for batting.

It was Pandya, whose 46 off 38 balls took India past 250-run mark after skipper Kohli scored his fourth half-century.

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