Victory made hundred sweeter, says Samuels
KOCHI, India (CMC) — Marlon Samuels says his sixth One-Day International (ODI) hundred was made all the more satisfying because of West Indies’ impressive 124-run win here Wednesday.
The right-handed Samuels carved out a brilliant unbeaten 126 as the Windies, sent in at the Nehru Stadium in the first ODI of the fivematch series, piled up 321 for six. India were then bundled out for 197 off 41 overs, with Samuels again in the forefront with two wickets for 10 runs from three overs. “I don’t put them (hundreds) in categories, so I just give thanks for another international hundred. It’s a great milestone,” Samuels said afterwards.
“Coming in and getting two quick wickets was just putting the icing on the cake. I always say scoring a hundred and getting two wickets and your team still loses, that goes down as nothing to me. But tonight we won, so I’m definitely enjoying this milestone.” Samuels strode to the wicket with West Indies 98 for two in the 18th over and proceeded to dominate. He emerged from a slow start to count 11 fours and four sixes in his 116-ball stay at the crease.
He added a venue-record 165 for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin whose 61 came from 59 balls and included five fours and two sixes. The partnership laid the foundation for West Indies’ impressive total.
“The communication out there was good. Ramdin is in good form as well, so I was striving off his energy and he was striving off my energy,” Samuels explained. “We were just talking and working out the situation.
Every over we came together and worked out what we were going to do … we just took it from there and it worked in our favour and the partnership set up the game from there.” The game was Samuels’ first ODI in eight months after being overlooked for the recent Bangladesh series.
However, he said he took that approach to his innings as he had felt in good touch during the preceding 50-over tour matches against India A.
“I was trying not to soak up too many balls and just rotate the strike, get off the strike, get fours in between and gain that confidence, because I have been in good nick from the practice games,” Samuels said. With the innings, Samuels became the 10th West Indian to reach 4,000 ODI runs.
