Gayle powers West Indies to 169

BRIDGETOWN: West Indies captain Chris Gayle struck a powerful 98 off 66 balls against India to lead his team to 169 for six in the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday.

Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul batted with caution in the early stages on a dampish wicket that was turning but they went on to make an opening partnership of 80 before the latter went in the 12th over for 23.

Darren Sammy (19) and Kieron Pollard (17) made useful contributions in support of Gayle, who struck seven sixes and was run out in the final over, two short of what would have been his second century in a Twenty20 international.

Earlier, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to field against hosts West Indies in their second match in the World Twenty20 Super Eights here at the Kensington Oval on Sunday.

India were unchanged but West Indies have brought Denesh Ramdin in to replace fellow wicketkeeper/batsman Andre Fletcher.

Both teams are looking to recover from defeats in their opening matches in the Super Eights.

India crashed to a 49-run defeat to Australia last Friday, and on the same day, West Indies slumped to a 57-run loss to Sri Lanka.

Teams:
West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Wavell Hinds, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Sulieman Benn.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Vijay Murali, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Patham, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra.