West Indies bowlers shine; batsmen not so much

In the recently-concluded Indian tour of the West Indies, we saw a few sparks on the bowling end from India’s Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar and clearly better batting from India’s 1.5 string batsmen.  However, the West Indian bowlers were overall better.  We saw excellent bowling from the new, improved, Ravi Rampaul, welcomed the return of Fidel Edwards, good spin from Bishoo, and decent to good bowling from captain Sammy.

So, with the clearly overall bowling attack on the West Indian side, why did India win all 3 formats?  India won the T20 (1-0), the ODIs (3-2) and the tests (1-0)… with some controversies in the tests.  The controversies might not have changed things BUT West Indies benefited from one but lost out on many.  The one benefit was when India decided to abandon the chase on the 3rd test match with probably an hour to go.   More than likely they would not have made it but it was definitely within reach.  On the other side, the umpires did the West Indian batsmen quite a bit of injustice with 3-4 calls of out showing that the batsmen were not out.  Examples were Samuels, Chanderpaul, and Sammy.

The scores

Only T20I – India won series 1-0

India 159/6 (20/20 ov); West Indies 143/5 (20/20 ov)
Results: India won by 16 runs

5 ODIs – India won series 3-2

1st ODI: West Indies v India at Port of Spain - Jun 6, 2011
West Indies 214/9 (50 ov); India 217/6 (44.5 ov)
Result: India won by 4 wickets (with 31 balls remaining)

2nd ODI: West Indies v India at Port of Spain - Jun 8, 2011
West Indies 240/9 (50 ov); India 183/3 (33.4/37 ov)
Result: India won by 7 wickets (with 20 balls remaining) (D/L method)

3rd ODI: West Indies v India at North Sound - Jun 11, 2011
West Indies 225/8 (50 ov); India 228/7 (46.2 ov)
Result: India won by 3 wickets (with 22 balls remaining)

4th ODI: West Indies v India at North Sound - Jun 13, 2011
West Indies 249/8 (50 ov); India 146 (39 ov)
Result: West Indies won by 103 runs

5th ODI: West Indies v India at Kingston - Jun 16, 2011
India 251 (47.3 ov); West Indies 255/3 (48.4 ov)
West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 8 balls remaining)

3 Tests – India won series 1-0

1st Test: West Indies v India at Kingston - Jun 20-23, 2011
India 246 and 252; West Indies 173 and 262
Result: India won by 63 runs

2nd Test: West Indies v India at Bridgetown - Jun 28-Jul 2, 2011
India 201 and 269/6d; West Indies 190 and 202/7
Result: Match drawn

3rd Test: West Indies v India at Roseau - Jul 6-10, 2011
West Indies 204 and 322; India 347 and 94/3
Result: Match drawn