Dwayne Bravo bulldozed defending champions India with bat and ball to hand the West Indies an emphatic seven-wicket win in the Twenty20 Super Eights match on Friday. Bravo claimed four wickets in India's 153-7 before smashing 66 not out off 36 balls to lead his team home with eight balls to spare in a group E game before a packed Lord's here.
Bravo signalled the entertaining win by lofting pace spearhead Zaheer Khan for six as the West Indies gained important points ahead of their remaining matches against South Africa and hosts England. The West Indies won despite a modest contribution from captain and star batsman, Chris Gayle, who made 22 off 28 balls and played out a maiden over from off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Lendl Simmons and Bravo put on 58 for the third wicket, Simmons making 44 off 37 balls before holing out in the deep off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. The West Indies, needing 39 off the last 24 balls, raced home by taking 16 runs off the 17th over by seamer Ishant Sharma and 15 from the next by Harbhajan.
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Scoreboard India:
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G. Gambhir c Simmons b Bravo 14
R. Sharma c Simmons b Edwards 5
S. Raina c Ramdin b Edwards 5
Y. Singh c and b Edwards 67
M. Dhoni c Fletcher b Bravo 11
Yusuf Pathan b Bravo 31
Irfan Pathan c Simmons b Bravo 2
H. Singh not out 13
Zaheer Khan not out 0
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Extras: (lb1, w4) 5
Total: (for 7 wkts, 20 overs) 153
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Did not bat: Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha.
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Sharma), 2-27 (Yuvraj), 3-29 (Gambhir), 4-66 (Dhoni), 5-130 (Yuvraj), 6-140 (Y. Pathan), 7-141 (I. Pathan).
Bowling: Taylor 4-0-44-0 (w1), Edwards 4-0-24-3 (w2), Bravo 4-0-38-4, Gayle 3-0-13-0, Pollard 2-0-7-0, Benn 3-0-26-0 (w1)
WEST INDIES:
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C. Gayle c Zaheer b Yusuf 22
A. Fletcher c Yuvraj b Irfan 0
L. Simmons c Irfan b Ojha 44
D. Bravo not out 66
S. Chanderpaul not out 18
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Extras: (lb3, w3) 6
Total: (for 3 wkts, 18.4 overs) 156
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