Darren Sammy walked in the middle, when West Indies still required 49 runs in 3.3 overs for victory. After Gayle’s departure in the 13th over, scoring had become difficult as Faulkner, Muirhead and Maxwell tied the batsmen in a knot. Until the 10th over, West Indies were scoring at a brisk rate but the Australian bowlers gained the upper hand as time passed. Until they were together, Marlon Samuels and Dwayne were only allowed ones and two with odd boundaries. Faulkner was especially bowling with great control and accuracy and when Samuels got out to a brilliant catch by keeper Haddin, who dived full length to a big edge from the batsman, it looked like Australia’s match. But Sammy had yet to arrive.
Earlier, the Australian compiled 178 for 8, which was an entirely defendable total. At one stage they were tottering at 77/4 but Maxwell and Hodge batted with flourish and pulled their team out of the woods. There were also useful contributions from the lower order batsmen in providing respectability to the final score. A highlight of the Australian innings was a sensational catch by Dwayne Brave, when Faulkner skied the ball. Bravo came running from deep, covering a lot of ground but the ball popped out of his reverse-cupped palms and went behind him. But keeping his eyes fixed on the target, Bravo turned on his heels in an instant and pounced on the falling ball to pick it up inches off the ground.
The India-Bangladesh match virtually turned out to be a no-contest game, with India dictating terms from the very beginning. It was literally a repeat of the two matches, which India have played earlier. The only exception was Ravichandran Ashwin, who collected the man-of-the-match award, instead of Amit Mishra in the last two games. Though Ashwin took only 2 wickets to Mishra’s haul of 3, the award panel might have been influenced by Ashwin conceding only 15 in his 4 overs. The hosts kept losing their wickets regularly to adventurous strokes and could only make 138, thanks to Anamul Haque and Mahmudullah, who made 44 and 33 respectively.
India lost Shikhar Dhawan early, but last match’s heroes, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli batted without any hurry and took the score to 113 in the 16th over, before Sharma needlessly got out. Dhoni joined Kohli and the two of them took India to an easy 8-wicket victory. With just one league game left against Australia on Sunday, India have already secured their place in the last four.