Indian bowlers led by the deadly Mohammed Shami produced yet another splendid performance to put their team on the cusp of a semifinal berth with a 125-run rout of the West Indies in their sixth World Cup encounter at Manchester on Thursday.
With 11 points, India are now almost through and another win in their next three games will seal their position in the top four as West Indies were knocked out with two games remaining.
India scored 268/7, riding on half-centuries by Virat Kohli (72 off 82 balls) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56 off 61 balls) and it turned out to be good enough as West Indies were shot out for 143 in only 34.2 overs.
In two successive matches now, the bowlers have more than covered up for a mediocre show from the batsmen, save skipper Kohli.
Shami (4/16 in 6.2 overs) was at his best in the first spell as he first bounced Chris Gayle out and then bowled an off-cutter to remove Shai Hope.
In his second spell, he got Shimron Hetmyer while his new-ball partner Jasprit Bumrah (2/9 in 6 overs) was fast and accurate getting two wickets off successive deliveries.
Kuldeep Yadav (1/35 in 9 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/39 in 7 overs) were too hot for the Caribbean batsmen on a track, where run-scoring became increasingly difficult with passage of time.
The last seven wickets fell for 63 runs in a space of 14 overs which indicated the Caribbean plight.
