West Indies beat India by 7 wickets at Lord’s. India failed to live up to the expectations in the team’s first real test. Dwayne Bravo shone with bat and ball to hand the Windies a victory. India won the toss and chose to bat. Rohit Sharma opened the innings again in the absence of Sehwag. The top order did not deliver the goods, this time. 

Edwards and Bravo provided the initial breakthroughs as India slumped to 66/4. Yuvraj continued with his good form in world cup T20 matches. Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan added valuable 64 runs for the fifth wicket. Yuvraj was at his usual best, scoring 67 off 43 balls. Yusuf gave him a good support and scored 31 off 23. The pair pushed the score up to defendable limits. Bravo finished with 4 wickets. India scored 153/7, a respectable total after a bad start. 

West Indies had a shaky start as Fletcher was out for a duck. Gayle played cautiously, scoring 22 off 28, quite an uncharacteristic innings. Simmons and Bravo added 58 runs for the third wicket. Bravo’s innings floored India. He scored an unbeaten 66 off 36 balls, studded with 4 fours and 3 sixes. The defending champions had no answer to the Bravo blitz. The Windies reached the target with 7 wickets in hand. Bravo was declared the man of the match for his all-round performance. India would be looking to improve on the performance at Lord’s. 

India – 153/7 (Yuvraj 67, Yusuf Pathan 31, Bravo 4/38)

West Indies – 156/3 (Bravo 66*, Simmons 44, Irfan 1/9)

Result – West Indies won by 7 wickets

Man-of-the-match – Dwayne Bravo

Venue – Lord’s, London (June 12, 2009)