Throwback to Best Encounters Between India and West Indies in ODIs

India won the second ODI match of the series on Sunday by 105 runs margin. Playing against a relatively weak West Indies team, everybody knew that India will win the match but this wasn’t the case in the past. There was a time when West Indies was one of the strongest teams. Let’s look back to top two matches between India and West Indies.

West Indies v India at Kingston, May 20, 2006

It was the second ODI of the series. India won the toss and decided to field first because the nature of pitch was slow. The decision of bowling first paid off as India restricted West Indies on just 198 runs. This was looking easy for India but West Indies wasn’t ready to give up. Chasing the target India lost the openers in just three overs. On one end batsmen were struggling while on the other end Yuvraj Singh wasn’t ready to give up. He scored 90 runs in those tough conditions but on the fourth ball of last over when India needed 2 runs to win, he got out and West Indies won the match by 1 run.

India v West Indies at Perth, Dec 6, 1991

Batting first, Indian batsmen struggled in the front of Windies bowlers and lost three wickets within 41 runs. Ravi Shastri was the only batsman of India who managed to score more than 20 runs. As the result of this, India scored only 126 runs. At this point, all hopes for Indian fans were lost but Indian bowlers repeated the performance of Windies bowlers and managed to tie the match. The top scorer for West Indies was Cummins who scored 24 runs.

West Indies v India at Kingston, May 18, 2006

This was the first ODI of the same series when West Indies won by one run in the second ODI. Batting first West Indies had a great start as the openers added 87 runs for opening partnership. It was Chris Gayle who smashed 123 runs which helped Windies to put 251 runs on the board. Chasing the target of 250+ runs in those conditions was hard and India knew if they have any chance of winning that game, the need a good opening partnership. Sehwag and Dravid added 52 runs for the opening partnership. Dravid smashed 105 runs which helped India to win the match in the last over by five wickets.