High
Shikhar Dhawan scored a second successive Champions Trophy hundred as India coasted to their second win in as many games, beating the West Indies by eight wickets at The Oval on Tuesday.
Dhawan (102 not out, 107b, 10x4, 1x6) and Dinesh Karthik (51 not out, 54b, 8x4) put on 109 runs for the third wicket as the World Cup champions — superior in all departments of the game — eased home with more than 10 overs to spare chasing the West Indies’s total of 233.
Dhawan, who scored 114 in the tournament opener against South Africa at Cardiff, put on 101 with Rohit Sharma (52, 56b, 7x4) as India always had the chase under control.
India’s second win in group B ensured them a place in the semi-finals even before their last league match against winless Pakistan in Birmingham on Saturday.
The West Indies and South Africa, who both beat Pakistan, clash in Cardiff on Friday to determine the second semi-finalist from the group.
Earlier, man of the match Ravindra Jadeja picked up a career-best 5/36 as India kept the West Indies down to 233/9. The left-arm spinner took three wickets for five runs in 14 balls to reduce the West Indies from a comfortable 103/1 to 109/4 after India won the toss on a grim, overcast day in London.
Johnson Charles smashed 60 off 55 balls, but it was a brilliant unbeaten 56 from 35 balls by former captain Darren Sammy towards the end that boosted the total.
Sammy plundered five boundaries and four sixes to lift his side from 182/9, making all the 35 runs from the last two overs as last man Kemar Roach watched from the non-striker’s end without scoring.
India won the initial battle by getting rid of dangerman Chris Gayle in the fifth over, caught at slip off Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, after he had scored 21 of the first 25 runs.
But Charles took over, reaching 50 from 46 balls with the help of seven boundaries and a six as the West Indies raced to 91/1 in the 17th over.
Charles brought up his team’s 100 in the 19th over by lofting Ravichandran Ashwin for a six, but fell six balls later when he was leg-before to Jadeja.
Jadeja won a leg-before decision from the television umpire to remove Marlon Samuels and then had Ramnaresh Sarwan caught down the leg-side by Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the West Indies slipped from 103/1 to 109/4.
Left-hander Darren Bravo scored a watchful 35 off 83 balls when he attempted to loft Ashwin, missed the line and was stumped by Dhoni to make the West Indies 140/5.
Kieron Pollard, kept scoreless for the first 10 balls, opened with two consecutive sixes off Ashwin before holing out in the deep off Ishant Sharma after making 22.
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