India Close Group Stage With Comprehensive Win

India Close Group Stage With Comprehensive Win

India celebrate a wicket during the West Indies innings.

©REUTERS/Mike Hutchings (SOUTH AFRICA) Picture Supplied by Action Images

India 130-3 (Kohli 79no) beat
West Indies 129 (Kumar 3-22, Nehra 3-31) by seven wickets
Scorecard
ICC Champions Trophy Group A, Johannesburg

India ended the ICC Champions Trophy group stage with a comprehensive seven-wicket win over the West Indies although both sides fail to qualify for the semi-finals.

India bowled the West Indies out for 129 and an unbeaten half-century from Virat Kohli guided them to victory with plenty of time to spare.

The West Indies lost a wicket in the first over having been invited to bat when Andre Fletcher fell to Praveen Kumar and they were swiftly in trouble at 57 for five, Kumar on his way to taking three for 22 and when captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni came on to have a bowl, he struck to bowl Travis Dowlin for 14.

Ashish Nehra returned three for 31 to continue his superb run of form since his recall earlier in the year and the top score for the West Indians was 23 from Darren Sammy as Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra also picked up wickets.

India made a poor start to their run chase, Gautam Gambhir edging Kemar Roach onto his stumps and Rahul Dravid being run out but a 92-run partnership between Dinesh Karthik (34) and Kohli ensured that there would be no upset win.

Both men played some dashing strokes, Kohli expanding after Karthik (34) sliced a pull to be caught by Dowlin off of Gavin Tonge, hitting nine fours and two sixes to finish on 79 in 104 balls.

India raced home in the 33rd over with Abhishek Nayar unbeaten without scoring at the end.

England take on Australia in the first semi-final on Friday (2nd Oct.) and New Zealand meet Pakistan on Saturday (3rd Oct.).

© Cricket World 2009

Breaking news, commentary and interviews on Cricket World Live - tune in from Monday to Friday, 10:00 - 16:00 GMT and, get the latest from Cricket World® with Facebook, twitter and YouTube and keep up with the action with the latest cricket TV highlights and interviews.