The cricket world that saw indomitable India in the Champions Trophy did not find themselves in the Tri-Nations series. After a struggling 1-wicket loss against the West Indies, India came under fire after a mammoth 161-run defeat against Sri Lanka. Kohli, who captained in Dhoni's absence, said India would bounce back in the next two matches. He kept his word and also led the team in victory with the bat. His brilliant century gave India the 102-run victory they needed to survive the series. Kohli made a century of 102 runs!
Windies won the toss and invited India to bat. It was the right decision for captain Dwayne Bravo to send India to bat on a low grass pitch, but Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan only frustrated the Windies bowlers. The Windies had to wait until 23 overs for the first wicket, but by then India had piled up 123 runs in the opening pair. Based on this pair, Kohli scored a quick century to bring India to a score of 300.
Shikhar Dhawan showed his batting prowess in the offside in this match, where he dominated the bowlers with more runs. His spectacular square drive was also seen in this match which was absent against Sri Lanka or the previous West Indies match. While Dhawan was scoring runs on one side, Rohit Sharma gave great support on the other side. Although not as fast as Dhawan, he was very focused on keeping the wicket!
Darren Bravo caught Dhawan at deep mid-wicket off Kemar Roach, the foundation that Dhawan had built, with 3 more wickets falling for just 45 runs, India were under some pressure. Kemar Roach and Tino Best's combined bowling attack helped the Windies get back into the match, but it was short-lived. Because after that, India got an innings on the way to Kohli's impeccable century.
A short but effective partnership of 42 runs led the team from the Kohli-Vijay power play when needed. The Windies bowlers tried to make the batsmen run with bounce, but it backfired. Kohli took them for boundaries with brilliant technique, while Murali Vijay got some bad balls and turned them into fours. As a result, an innings of 27 runs from 18 balls with the help of 5 fours came from his bat.
Vijay took a catch off Charles at backward point off Pollard, after which Ravindra Jadeja was trapped for a run out. Team runs then 221, for 6 wickets. With Jadeja's run out, the Windies were hoping to tie India within 250, but Ashwin and Kohli again disappointed. Even though the wicket fell on one side, Kohli kept the wheel of runs right on the other side. Indian pacer Ravi Ashwin joined him. He has given Kohli worthy support by playing an unbeaten innings of 25 runs off 18 balls.
On the other hand, Kohli made 102 runs from 83 balls and gave India a big collection of 311 runs! India lost 7 wickets in the allotted 50 overs, out of which 24 runs came courtesy of Windies bowlers. Apart from Tino Best's 2 wickets, Roach, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels and Pollard claimed 1 wicket each.
Windies lost Chris Gayle very quickly in the run chase, dashing their hopes of starting with a big collection. After losing the last two matches, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yadav regained themselves in this match. Kumar alone broke the Windies top order with 3 wickets, while Yadav accelerated the defeat of Windies with 3 wickets in the lower order. Ishant Sharma crippled the middle order with 2 wickets before defeat, Jadeja took the remaining 2 wickets.
Chris Gayle was stumped by Kumar after picking up 10 runs from 13 balls. After that only the Windies batsmen joined the procession. However, standing against the current, Johnson Charlie scored 45 runs from 39 balls. On the wicket where the Indian batsmen scored a run in the PT, the Windies were seen making a desperate attempt to score a run! Windies confirmed the defeat by losing 8 wickets for 113 runs.
But then Roach-Nrain's 38-run partnership kept India waiting for the final victory. These two bowlers scored 34 and 21 runs respectively in the lower order on a day of failure by the Windies batsmen. India's wait came to an end when Jadeja took their wicket with two consecutive balls, India survived the series with a huge win by 102 runs. The man of the match award went to Kohli for winning the team by scoring a century.