India Stumble Again At The Final Hurdle

History repeated itself as India once again faltered atthe last hurdle going down in the final of the Coca-Cola Cup one-day series toWest Indies here today after putting up a brilliant performance in the leaguematches.

The heroics of Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Samir Dighe,who shone in difficult circumstances, proved insufficient as India stopped 16runs short of an imposing West Indian score of 290 for six, the highest of thetournament, after Indian captain Saurav Ganguly won the toss and put theopposition in to bat for the fifth time in a row.

Ganguly's ploy, which worked brilliantly on the earlierfour occasions, went totally haywire today as the West Indies gave an inspiredperformance and outplayed them in all departments of the game.

The Indians never looked to be in the game once theylost their top five batsmen with just 80 runs on the board but Sodhi and Dighe,who scored 67 and an unbeaten 94 respectively and added 111 runs for the sixthwicket, made a valiant attempt to make a match of it and enabled their team toreach 274 for eight in their 50 overs.

Their efforts did not prove enough but they certainlysaved from humiliation the team which has now lost the last four final matchesit has featured in.

It was an entirely transformed West Indian side todayand that was reflected in their body language. Every movement of theirs oozedconfidence and aggression. On the other hand the Indians came up with theirworst performance in the tournament especially while bowling and fielding.

The West Indiesfired from all guns and set the momentum right from the word go as theydominated throughout the innings after being put in to bat by Ganguly who wonthe toss and elected to field for the fifth time in a row in this tournament.

While it was an inspired performance from the WestIndians, India produced their worst bowling and fielding show and wereresponsible for their plight in a major way.

They bowled short and wide, especially in the initialovers when openers Darren Ganga and Chris Gayle tore them apart to give theirteam a flying start, and the fielding, very professional till this match, wasmediocre.

West Indies, who had struggled to consolidate in themiddle overs in this tournament, applied themselves well and captain Carl Hooperand Shivnaraine Chanderpaul chose the big occasion to make their mark. They madethe best use of a fine start by the openers and added 108 runs for the fourthwicket in 19 overs without taking any risks.

Except for Wavell Hinds, who was out for 10, the entiretop order of West Indies chipped in with handsome contributions. Ganga topscoredwith 71 while his opening partner Gayle made 43. Hooper scored a brilliant 66off 63 balls and Chanderpaul made 50. Wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs made 26 andremained unbeaten in the tournament.

PTI