November 07
Dashing Sarwan seals last-ball win amid crowd trouble

JAMSHEDPUR: Ramnaresh Sarwan shrugged off crowd trouble to hit a four off the last ball of the match as West Indies beat India by four wickets in the first one-day international of a seven-match series on Wednesday. Play had to be stopped for 10 minutes when the crowd, anticipating an Indian defeat, started throwing missiles onto the field with West Indies needing 13 from three overs.

By the final over and with the light fading, the visitors needed six but lost Ridley Jacobs for a five-ball duck to leave three required off the last ball. Medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar bowled a full toss outside the off stump and Sarwan thumped it over extra cover for four to reach the 284-run victory target.

Sarwan finished with a career-best 89-ball 83, with six fours and three sixes, after Wavell Hinds had set up the win with a 93. Earlier Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble became only the third man in history to take 300 wickets in both one-dayers and tests.

The 22-year-old Sarwan's second one-day fifty could not have come at a better time for the West Indies, who started fluently but fell behind the rate after Hinds fell with 11 overs to spare. Sarwan, though kept West Indies in the hunt in a 71-run fifth-wicket stand with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (23).

Sarwan tilted the scales back in his team's favour in the 47th over from off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, sweeping him over mid-wicket for six and cutting a four to the point fence.

Left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra gave India a new lease of life when play resumed after the break, having Chanderpaul caught by Ganguly at mid-wicket and bowling a 49th over maiden. But Mahendra Nagamootoo scampered for a single from the penultimate ball before Guyanese Sarwan settled the issue in style.

Hinds had led the charge from the start, putting on 86 for the second wicket with Samuels after Chris Gayle was out for seven. Samuels drove Nehra through the covers for four and hit Harbhajan for two boundaries off consecutive balls. He got his 50 by driving Kumble for a single but was bowled between bat and pad to give the leg-spinner his 300th one-day scalp in his 234th match.

Kumble is only the third bowler in history, after Pakistani pacemen Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, to claim 300 wickets in both forms of cricket. Hinds was out for 93, off 107 balls including 12 fours and two sixes, when he edged Nehra to wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid.

Agarkar had earlier struck a career-best 95 to help India reach 283 for six. The 24-year-old, moved up the order as an experiment with next year's World Cup in mind, shared in a 98-run stand for the third wicket with Vangipurappu Laxman (47) and 75 for the fourth with Rahul Dravid, who was 46 not out off 42 balls.

Agarkar's 101-ball knock, which beat his previous best of 67 not out against Zimbabwe in Rajkot two year ago, rescued India from 49 for two after electing to bat on a freshly-laid wicket. Agarkar turned the tide by flicking Collins to the mid-wicket boundary, driving a slower ball from Drakes through long-on and then smashing him cleanly over mid-wicket for a big six.

He got his second one-day 50, off 60 balls, but Collins finally had him caught in the covers. India seemed to lose their way in the dying stages before a 31-run cameo, off 18 balls and including three fours in the final over, from Kaif. The home side won the three-test series 2-0.