Rohit hits half-century as India reach 160/4 after 40 overs

Opener Rohit Sharma hit a composed half-century as India reached 160 for four after 40 overs against hosts West Indies in the second match of the Celkon Mobile Cup Tri-Series here today.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13 batting) and Suresh Raina (31 batting) were at the crease with the final 10 overs of the Indian innings still left.

Sharma wasted yet another opportunity as he scored a well-compiled 60 off 89 balls after India were put into bat on a slow track by West Indies' stand-in captain Kieron Pollard.

Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik didn't make significant contribution although Karthik was engaged in a half-century stand with Sharma. Darren Sammy had a decent outing with the ball as he took two for 41 from his 10 overs.

'Man of the moment' Dhawan pulled Best and then hit a crisp cover drive off Roach to get couple of boundaries.

Sharma, whose performance has been much better since he started opening the innings started off with a six off Best -- a slash that flew over third man.

However Roach had the last laugh when Dhawan (10) failed to check his uppish drive which the bowler caught on the second attempt.

Virat Kohli (11, 21 balls) struggled to get going on a slow pitch before he tried an expansive drive off Sammy but Chris Gayle standing wide of first slip took a fantastic one-handed catch diving to his right.

For Karthik, it was a big struggle to rotate strike as Sammy was in the middle of a good spell where he kept things tight. With the ball not coming onto the bat, the two batsmen proceeded on a sedate note during the initial phase.

It was one such occasion when Sharma was prepared to play the waiting game as he got the occasional boundary. One such shot was a lofted drive over extra cover off Best.
The 50 partnership for the third wicket came off 88 balls and just when it looked like that Karthik was getting a hang of the track, he offered a simple return catch to Marlon Samuels to end a 59-run stand. Karthik took 56 balls to score 23 with three hits to the fence.

Sharma, however carried on without much fuss. A deft cut past backward point off Sunil Narine was sheer class and he completed his 16th half-century in limited overs format off 77 balls with a double as the 100 of the team came in the 27th over.

Just when the Mumbaikar was looking good for a big score, he frittered away yet again trying to hoick a length delivery from Sammy only to be holed out at long-off boundary. Rohit faced 89 balls for his 60 hitting four boundaries and a six.