Daily Cricket News

Kohli makes 81 as India beat West Indies again

• India open up a 2-0 series lead over West Indies

• Kohli named man of the match after hitting 81 

PORT OF SPAIN, June 8  - Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel both racked up half-centuries to guide India to a comfortable seven-wicket win over West Indies in their rain-interrupted second one-day international on Wednesday.

Kohli blasted 81 and Patel 56 in a 120-run stand as the tourists easily reached their revised target of 183 off 37 overs with 20 balls to spare at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.

West Indies had earlier made 240-9 from their 50 overs with Ramnaresh Sarwan (56) scoring his second fifty of the series and opener Lendl Simmons making 53 before the home team's batting collapsed.

"We put ourselves in a good position but we didn't capitalise in the end. We were about 30 runs short," West Indies captain Darren Sammy said at the presentation.

India, playing their first ODI series since winning the World Cup on home soil in April, lead the five-match series 2-0 despite the absence of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and master batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

The third match will be played in Antigua on Saturday.

"I was disappointed getting out in the last game, but did well today," said Kohli, who was named man of the match.

"The last 18 months have gone well for me. I've started to enjoy the batting a lot more."

West Indies made a bright start with opener Kirk Edwards (25) and Marlon Samuels (36) providing Simmons and Sarwan with support at the top of the order.

They were coasting along at 175-2 in the the 36th over when suddenly the wheels fell off and the wickets started to tumble. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra caused most of the damage, ripping through the middle order and taking 4-31.

India suffered an early setback when they lost Shikhar Dhawan, who made a half-century in the first match, cheaply but Patel and Vohli put the world champions back on course with their partnership.

The tourists were well on their way to victory when the match was halted. Once the rain finally eased, they had no problems reaching their new calculation under the Duckworth/Lewis method.