After Yuvraj Singh hit Dwayne Bravo for two successive fours in the final over, it was Chris Gayle who suggested that the Trinidad all-rounder try a slower delivery to deceive the left-hander and pull off the narrow West Indian victory.
"It was Gayle who suggested Bravo to try a slower one as the batsman wouldn't be expecting it," West Indian captain Brian Lara said after the cliff-hanger against India on Saturday.
But he got his measure back when Yuvraj played all around Bravo's delivery to have his stumps scattered and the series squared at one-all.
Lara said that with only two runs needed from three balls, he had considered bringing his field in to stop a single being taken.
"However, I decided against it for a single at that stage would have exposed the last batsman to face the final two deliveries."
He gave full marks to his team for defending the target of 199 in admirable fashion.
"If you notice, it is not as if we have not been in winning positions before. We do place ourselves in winning positions but unfortunately, have not been able to finish as winners. Today we managed it."
The West Indian innings was held together by Ramnaresh Sarwan who fell two short of what would have been a memorable hundred.
"Indians were extremely tight in the initial overs and runs were extremely difficult to come by. However, I was determined to stay till the end," said Sarwan.
Indian captain Rahul Dravid said some of his batsmen played lofted strokes at the wrong time costing them the second one-dayer against the West Indies but believed it would be a learning experience for the young side.
"It is a young team so hopefully this experience would hold them in good stead," Dravid said.
"We lost the match because a few of our batsmen played lofted strokes at wrong time. Still, I would not be too critical of the team," he said.
Dravid singled out Yuvraj Singh for special praise describing the Punjab batsman's innings as one of the best he had seen in the recent months.
"There have been so many similar innings played by him that it's difficult to term which one is the best. However, this was a special effort," he said.
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