India 199 for 5 (Samson 97*, Tilak 27, Holder 2-38) beat West Indies 195 for 4 (Chase 40, Holder 37*, Bumrah 2-36) by five wickets
Hope’s despair
Smartly, India kept bowling Axar, backloading Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy for bigger hitters. Hope scored only 15 runs off 13 balls from Axar. He made only ten boundary attempts in his 33-ball stay. By the time Varun bowled him to make it 20 matches with at least one wicket, West Indies had dawdled to 68 for 1 in 8.5 overs, and were looking at six overs from Bumrah and Varun in the last 11.
Hetmyer is halted
Curiously, at this point, India didn’t go straight to Bumrah, but took the defensive option of bowling another Hardik Pandya over. Hetmyer wasted little time in regaining the record for most sixes in a single World Cup, hitting two in the first six balls to go past Sahibzada Farhan’s 19.
Having overplayed their hand, India brought Bumrah back for the 12th over, and he dismissed both the set batters for 27 off 16 and 40 off 25. When two of your three batters have such returns, you should really be doing much better than West Indies’ 103 for 3 in 12 overs.
Holder, Powell give WI finishing kick
Arshdeep came back to finish off well with no boundaries in the 19th over, but Holder and Powell managed to take 26 from overs 18 and 20, bowled by Bumrah.
Samson breaks the eerie calm, but wickets fall around him
Abhishek practically played the entirety of the first two overs of the chase, taking India to 12 for 0. There was a bit of discomfort around with West Indies expecting a desperate shot. Samson didn’t need any of those. He backed away to create his first four off Akeal Hosein, and then swept and pulled him for sixes.
While Samson was caressing boundaries, Abhishek and Kishan offered catches to Hetmyer at deep square leg. Hetmyer took both of them to make it 41 for 2 in 4.3 overs.
Samson overrides Suryakumar slowness
For some reason, India, so big on right-left combinations in the lead-up to the World Cup, have been inflexible about Suryalumar Yadav batting at No. 4. He hit a trademark six over backward of square leg, but two right-handed batters in the middle allowed West Indies to bowl their left-arm spinners. Suryakumar’s contribution to the 58-run third-wicket stand was 18 off 16.
Samson stayed imperious at the other end, finding boundaries whenever the asking rate reached threatening proportions.
Samson, Tilak overcome offspin
Against Tilak Varma, Chase created pressure, bowling three dots in his first over, the 12th of the innings. Shamar Joseph, who had taken Suryakumar’s wicket, started the 13th over with India in the most trouble they ever were in the chase, needing 92 off the last eight and a match-up against offspin in front of them.
Samson hit the first four, followed by a hat-trick of fours from Tilak to remove any alarm from the chase. As a final piece of the cherry on top, Tilak ended Chase’s second over with a straight six. He fell to a sharp catch from Hetmyer at mid-off, but Tilak did a big job with his 27 off 15.
Samson sees off nervous chase
Pandya became the second batter to not benefit from a drop in the Indian innings when he was caught at extra cover at the start of the 19th over, leaving India 17 to get off ten. Shivam Dube, though, immediately settled the nerves with two fours in four balls as Joseph missed his yorker ever so slightly, leaving only seven to get in the last over.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
