Strike-rotating shenanigans

The final minutes of India's innings were full of strike-rotating shenanigans, as MS Dhoni, batting with the lower order, sought to face the bowling for the majority of the last few deliveries. Fielding at long-on at the start of the 49th over, Kieron Pollard looked to test Dhoni's resolve to remain on strike. Bhuvneshwar Kumar hit the ball straight towards Pollard, and the batsmen ran the single that was on offer. Having picked the ball up, though, Pollard didn't throw it to the bowler, and chose instead to roll it away a few yards and entice the batsmen to run a second. It seemed as if he was punting on getting one of the two run out if they chose to take the bait, with the consolation that Dhoni would get off strike if the dismissal didn't materialise. The batsmen hesitated for a couple of seconds, and then decided they would take the second. Pollard threw to the bowler, but Bhuvneshwar was home and dry well in time.

Facing the last ball of the 49th over, Bhuvneshwar miscued Dwayne Bravo high in the air, and scurried down the pitch by force of habit. Dhoni, at the non-striker's end, had backed up a few steps out of his crease. As the ball fell towards Pollard's cupped hands at long-on, Dhoni realised he would lose the strike for the start of the final over if he crossed over mid-pitch with Bhuvneshwar, and ran backwards, towards his crease, stopping Bhuvneshwar with his hand held aloft like a traffic policeman.

Having thus kept the strike, Dhoni swung the first ball of the final over hard through midwicket. Long-on had a good distance to cover to his right, and two runs were on the cards. Just as he was turning at the non-striker's end to go back for the second, however, Dhoni slipped and fell, and had to send Mohammed Shami, who had run three-quarters of the way down the pitch, all the way back to the keeper's end. To add another disorienting element to the drama, the throw came in hard and flat, missed the bowler, and nearly struck the fallen Dhoni on his head.

In the tenth over of the West Indies innings, Dwayne Smith played a checked drive off Mohammed Shami towards Virat Kohli at mid-on, and did so with soft enough hands to run a quick single. Kohli attacked the ball, swooped down on it, and let rip a powerful low throw that missed the stumps at the bowler's end. Fortunately for India, it also missed - narrowly - Amit Mishra, who had sprinted in from short cover to try and back up, and Shami, who was lying sprawled on the pitch, having dived to try and stop Smith's shot.