November 13 Wednesday 2002
India win after Windies storm out in disrupted match

RAJKOT: India won the third One-day International against the West Indies when the Caribbean team stormed off the field after fielder Vasbert Drakes was hit by a bottle thrown by a spectator.

Chasing the West Indies' score of 300 for five in 50 overs, India was 200 for one in 27.1 overs. The home team was declared winner by 81 runs under the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s Duckworth-Lewis calculation formula, used to decide matches that don't run their full course.

Under the formula, India needed to have scored 119 runs when the match was stopped. The home team's score of 200 secured it an 81-run win. Match referee Mike Procter said the West Indies didn't want to resume the match after the bottle-throwing incident. "The West Indies did not want to resume and I agreed with them completely," Procter said.

"I took the measures... to prevent injuries to players." Procter said he declared India the winner because it was "miles ahead of West Indies." Rowdy spectators also interrupted the first two games of the seven-match series in Jamshedpur and Nagpur last week, both won by the West Indies. Police had to move in to curb violent fans before the matches could resume.

India's run-chase was spearheaded by opener Virender Sehwag, who smashed an unbeaten 114 -- his third one-day century -- and shared a record 196-run opening stand with skipper Sourav Ganguly. Sehwag struck two sixes over mid-wicket -- against off-spinner Chris Gayle and leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo -- and dispatched the ball to the fence 17 times in his unconquered 82-ball knock.

Ganguly posted an 83-ball 72, which contained nine boundaries, but was caught by Shivnarine Chanderpaul off Drake's three balls before the match was disrupted. Earlier, the Windies were spurred by a record fourth-wicket stand of 149 from 146 deliveries between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul after being asked to bat first by Indian skipper Ganguly.

Sarwan smashed two sixes and six boundaries in his 88-ball knock of 84, taking the Indian bowlers apart during his partnership with Chanderpaul. Chanderpaul hit eight boundaries, notching up 74 runs from 77 balls to bolster the Windies' total after opener Gayle set the scene with a 68-ball 72, which contained two sixes and 12 boundaries.

Sarwan and Chanderpaul surpassed the Windies' previous best fourth-wicket stand of 126 against India by Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams in 1995.