Ahmedabad: Ravi Rampaul got second time lucky as the West Indies paceman grabbed four wickets (4/57) to give his side a 16-run victory, their first on this tour, in the third ODI against India at the Sardar Patel Stadium here on Monday.
Needing 261 to win the contest and take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, India lost six wickets with just 105 runs on the board. Rohit Sharma (95 off 100) once again came to India's rescue but his wicket in the 44th over diminished any hopes India had to overhaul the Windies total.
The last pair of Abhimanyu Mithun (23 off 16) and Umesh Yadav did use the long handle to good effect, but it was not good enough to give India an improbable win.
Earlier, a half-century (58 off 93) by Marlon Samuels and cameos by Darren Sammy (41 off 17) and Andre Russell (40 off 18) helped West Indies put up a challenging 260/5 after India skipper Virender Sehwag won the toss and elected to field.
The two allrounders finished the Windies innings in rollicking fashion, hitting 43 runs in the last two overs. West Indies pummelled 52 runs in the last three overs, 73 in the last five and 93 in the last seven overs of their innings.
Both Sammy and Russell also stitched together an unbeaten stand of 79 off just 34 deliveries for the sixth wicket.
The visitors' innings started off shakily with Lendl Simmons (1 off 8) departed early. There was a definite edge but the umpires couldn't conclude if it carried to Parthiv Patel. So they went upstairs and the replays were conclusive enough to go in Vinay Kumar's favour.
It was Mithun, who replaced Varun Aaron for the game, who struck for India. A ball that hardly looked menacing had given India their second wicket. Danza Hyatt (20 off 39) shuffled across to a ball sliding down the leg side and got a thin edge that settled into Parthiv's gloves.
But Marlon Samules did not hold himself back and had added some solidity to the West Indies scorecard with his strokeplay.
Meanwhile, Bravo struggled with a hamstring strain on his left leg that finally led the classy left-hander to leave the field retired hurt for 26 off 41 balls.
Samuels reached his 22nd ODI half-century in 78 deliveries by nudging Suresh Raina for a single to mid-off.
But the right-handers' innings was cut short by R Ashwin, who tempted Samuels to play a rash stroke outside the off-stump to a ball which was slow in the air, thus losing his balance before being bowled.
The batting powerplay, which was taken between over No. 34 and 38, yielded only 19 runs with India strangled Windies.
Big-hitting Kieron Pollard, who was dropped by Gautam Gambhir when he was on six, got out to a blinder by Ravindra Jadeja. The Saurashtra player took a stunning catch at the deep-extra-cover fence to send the dangerous batsman back.
Denesh Ramdin looked good during his stay at the wicket before being caught behind for 38 off 52 deliveries by a Umesh Yadav short and wide delivery. The wicketkeeper batsman stitched a 55-run stand with Pollard in 61 balls.
Mithun got a special treatment by Sammy and Russel, who hit the young Indian bowler for 23 runs, two fours and two massive sixes, in the penultimate over of the innings. The Windies duo finished the innings by hitting 20 runs in the last over.
In reply, India got off to a terrible start, losing the wickets of Sehwag and Gambhir on the successive deliveries of Rampaul.
Sehwag went for an expansive slash to a short-of-a-length Rampaul delivery outside his off-stump, giving a simple catch to wicketkeeper Ramdin. Gambhir, on the other hand, seemed to be in two minds - whether to play or leave a full-length ball by the same bowler, which thudded into the left-handers pads to get him leg before wicket.
Parthiv and Rohit took India forward with well-stolen singles and timely boundaries. Parthiv was looking calmer than usual, playing the ball to its merit, while Rohit had started from where he left off in the last game at Visakhapatnam. The right-hander sets off with a beautiful six over the extra-cover region off offspinner Narine.
Things got bad to worse for India when Virat Kohli (20 off 30), last match centurion, departed. He played down the wrong line to a full-length Sunil Narine ball, which could have hit middle and leg stumps had Kohli missed it.
And much disappointment to the home crowd, Parthiv fell after scoring 39 off 35 balls. The southpaw played down the wrong line to a Samuels delivery that pitched on a good length before leaving him to hit the stumps.
Patel's wicket followed by Suresh Raina's (2 off 3) dismissal as Rampaul once again struck for the West Indies. The paceman got Raina caught behind to a delivery that seemed to have flicked the left-handers' thigh pad and not his bat.
A drama followed when Rampaul bowled a perfect delivery that swerved late before hitting Jadeja's pads. The southpaw was given out by Tony Hill before asking the batsman to wait to check for a no-ball. The replay showed the bowler had overstepped, thus giving the batsman a life and also a free-hit, which was dispatched for a top-edge four behind the keeper.
But in a moment of madness, Rohit and Jadeja tried to take on an agile Russell at short point, who threw the ball the moment he grabbed it. Jadeja (11 off 16) could not make use of the life he got in the last over and was run-out.
In the meantime, Rohit's completed his third fifty, 11th overall, on the trot. The 24-year-old took 64 balls to reach the milestone.
Rohit and R Ashwin (31 off 64) then stitched the 91-run stand between them before the latter was trapped lbw by offspinner Narine.
The wicket of R Vinay Kumar (3 off 8) pegged India further back in their run chase and Rohit dismissal put final nail in the coffin.
The 24-year-old, who was close to scoring his third ODI century, was run-out by an agile Sammy, fielding at mid-wicket.
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