Pollard stars in West Indies win

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

Big-hitting Kieron Pollard finally came good and rookie leg-spinner Anthony Martin grabbed a four-wicket haul, as a gritty West Indies trounced India by 103 runs to earn a consolation victory in the fourth one-day international here, yesterday.

The powerful right-hander top scored with 70 - only his second half-century against a full ICC member side in 38 innings - to haul West Indies out of a now-familiar slump and lift them to 249 for eight at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

Martin, who made his international debut at age 28 against Pakistan in April, then snatched four for 36 as India's batting surprisingly collapsed in a heap for 146 off 39 overs.

The right-armer claimed the crucial wickets of top scorer Rohit Sharma (39), the dangerous Virat Kohli (22) and captain Suresh Raina (10), to engineer India's terminal decline from a position of 82 for three in the 21st over.

Highest score

West Indies were always in with a chance once Pollard, in tandem with the in-form Lendl Simmons (67), had pushed West Indies to their highest score of the series.

Pollard faced 72 balls and cracked six fours and two sixes in an innings that was crucial after West Indies plunged to 103 for five in the 27th over.

The 24-year-old Trinidadian, whose previous best against a top-flight side was 62 against Australia in February last year, anchored a 96-run, sixth-wicket stand with wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh who again played responsibly for 39.

Pollard was joined in the rescue effort by Simmons, who got his second half-century in three innings, while flamboyant all-rounder André Russell got a cameo 25 from 14 balls, with three fours and a six.

Yet again, however, West Indies' batting failed to fire as Danza Hyatt (1), Ramnaresh Sarwan (1), Darren Bravo (15) and Marlon Samuels (8) all failed.

SCOREBOARD

WEST INDIES

L. Simmons run out 67D. Hyatt c Tiwary b I Sharma 1R. Sarwan c Tiwary b Kumar 1D. Bravo c Tiwary b Mishra 15M. Samuels lbw b Mishra 8K. Pollard c I Sharma b Ashwin 70+C. Baugh c Kohli b Kumar 39A. Russell c Kohli b Kumar 25D. Sammy not out 1K. Roach not out 4Extras (lb7, w8, nb3) 18Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 249

Did not bat: A Martin.

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Hyatt, 1.5 overs), 2-12 (Sarwan, 4.5), 3-65 (Bravo, 16), 4-89 (Samuels, 23.1), 5-103 (Simmons, 26.4), 6-199 (Pollard, 44.2), 7-240 (Baugh, 48.2), 8-240 (Russell, 48.3)

Bowling: Kumar 10-3-37-3, I Sharma 10-0 60 1, Ashwin 10-1-39-1, Mishra 10-3-56-2, Pathan 6-0-24-0, Tiwary 4-0-26-0.

INDIA

+P. Patel c & b Sammy 26M.K. Tiwary c wk Baugh b Sammy 2V. Kohli st Baugh b Martin 22S. Badrinath c wk Baugh b Russell 12R. Sharma c Bravo b Martin 39S. Raina c Pollard b Martin 10Y. Pathan c Roach b Simmons 1R. Ashwin c Samuels b Russell 15P. Kumar c Sammy b Russell 6A. Mishra not out 5I. Sharma st Baugh b Martin 0Extras (b4, lb2, w2) 8Total (all out, 39 overs) 146

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Tiwary, 5.4 overs), 2-41 (Patel, 9.2), 3-62 (Badrinath, 16.3), 4-82 (Kohli, 21), 5-111 (Raina, 27), 6-114 (Pathan, 27.4), 7-124 (R Sharma, 31), 8-138 (Kumar, 35.1), 9-145 (Ashwin, 37.5), 10-146 (I Sharma, 39)

Bowling: Roach 8-1-22-0, Sammy 9-0-43-2, Russell 7-0-16-3, Pollard 4-0-20-0, Martin 10-0-36-4, Simmons 1-0-3-1.

Result: West Indies won by 103 runs.

Series: India lead five-match series 3-1.

Man of the Match: Anthony Martin.

Toss: India. Umpires: I. Gould, N. Malcolm.