India vs Windies 2018: Partnership with Ambati Rayudu was the Game-Changer - Rohit Sharma

Team India played an excellent all-round cricket, as they won the fourth ODI against the Windies where Rohit Sharma played an impressive innings to help Men in Blue post a mammoth total. Meanwhile, Ambati Rayudu hit his third hundred in 50-over cricket, and his partnership of 211 runs for the third wicket with Rohit helped India gain momentum.

Rayudu was brilliant on the day – Rohit

However, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the much-needed toss and elected to bat first. The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan got off to a solid start, as they added 71 runs for the first wicket.

Later, Rohit Sharma slammed this 21st ODI ton after he scored 162 runs off 137 deliveries; also his tally included twenty boundaries and four massive sixes. Meanwhile, it was Sharma’s second century in the series, as he had scored unbeaten 152 runs in the first ODI to help chase down the total of 322 runs.

Furthermore, he also became the second batsman to hit two 150+ scores in a series after Hamilton Masakadza against Kenya at home in 2009.

During the first innings, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu added 211 runs for the third wicket to help India post a mammoth total of 377 runs. However, Windies pacer, Kemar Roach only managed to pick up two wickets in the innings.

While chasing down the target, Windies lost their four wickets within a short span of ten overs, and later they lost another three wickets in the next ten overs. Khaleel Ahmed and Kuldeep Yadav were the picks of the bowlers from India, as each managed to pick up three wickets. There was nothing much to say about the Windies, as they couldn’t do much in the match apart from Jason Holder who scored a half-century.

However, during the post-match presentation, Rohit lauded Ambati and said the partnership changed the course of the game in Mumbai.

“I’ve been doing some slip-catching for a while. I can hear Virat laugh there. Good to get some catches, and it is important to hold those catches. Especially if you’re fielding in the slips for Kuldeep, it isn’t easy to read his hands. It is important to know when he was going to bowl that googly and it’s important to be ready for it. Very clinical right from the start. After losing two wickets, I had mentioned about having a big partnership, and that was a game-changing one. These partnerships help us stay in the game for longer and get big totals.”