Successive Indian batsmen couldn´t handle Kemar Roach (1-24) and Darren Sammy´s (1-16) screaming bouncers as India responded to West Indies´ 169-6 with 155-9.[break]
Since India had already lost to Australia (and West Indies to Sri Lanka), the loss means that only some near-impossible calculations could save them.
Chasing 169/6, Murali Vijay struggled to 7 before he holed out to deep square-leg off Sammy. Gautam Gambhir (15) was expected to handle pace bowling better, but was done in by a perfume ball from Roach that kissed his glove on its way to the wicketkeeper.
Rohit Sharma was unlucky to be given out by umpire Billy Bowden. As he attempted to scoop Kieron Pollard, the ball hit his forearm and ballooned to Denesh Ramdin with the gloves.
Suresh Raina (32) and Yuvraj Singh began to repair the innings. But both slogged to the deep midwicket´s hands, and India slipped to 80-5 in 12 overs. Pathan (17) and Dhoni (29) kept India´s hopes alive with a couple of big hits. But India never had the firepower to tackle West Indies´ tactics.
Earlier, West Indies captain Chris Gayle fell agonisingly short of an unprecedented second Twenty20 International hundred.
Gayle struck five fours and seven sixes in a typically enterprising 98 from 66 balls, as West Indies, sent in to bat, reached 169 for six from their full 20 overs, after play started half-an-hour late because of a damp pitch.
He was run out going for a second run, when he failed to beat substitute fielder Dinesh Karthik´s throw from the cover boundary to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, off the second-last ball of the innings.
Gayle was dropped at square leg on 46, when he top-edged a pull off Ashish Nehra in the 12th over, with Dhoni, and short third man fielder Yusuf Pathan running into each other as the ball fell safely to the turf.
Gayle reached his 50 from 41 balls when, two balls later, a thick edge driving ferociously at Nehra flew to third man for his third four.
Fellow left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a passenger in an opening stand of 80 with Gayle, failed to make use of a dropped chance on 12, and was caught behind off Nehra from the penultimate ball of the 12th over.
Sammy struck two fours and a six in 19 from 10 balls before he was caught on the long-on boundary off Ravindra Jadeja in the 16th over.
This brought the big-hitting Kieron Pollard to the crease. He struck two sixes in 17 from 11 balls before he was caught at long-on in the 19th over.
With Gayle nearing the milestone, both Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan sacrificed their wickets with miscued pulls to mid-wicket off Nehra, who ended with three wickets for 35 runs from his allotted four overs.
Gayle was the first of only four men to score a Twenty20 international hundred when he made 117, still the highest individual score at this level, against South Africa in the opening match of the inaugural World Twenty in Johannesburg in 2007.
Two of the other Twenty20 centuries have come at this tournament, with India´s Suresh Raina making 101 against South Africa in St Lucia on May 2 and, a day later, Sri Lanka´s Mahela Jayawardene posting exactly 100 against Zimbabwe in Guyana.
Jayawardene just missed out on back-to-back hundreds, and the honour of becoming the first player to score two centuries at this level, when he made an unbeaten 98 against the West Indies in Sri Lanka´s 57-run win at Kensington here on Friday.
India were unchanged from their previous match against Australia, which they lost by 49 runs, also at Kensington on Friday.
West Indies brought Denesh Ramdin in to replace fellow wicketkeeper/batsman Andre Fletcher following their 57-run defeat by Sri Lanka.
Related story
Int’l lead poisoning awareness week 2024 kicks off in Nepal
