The immensely talented Manoj Tiwary finally displayed his true potential as he scored his maiden century on a difficult track to help India reach a competitive 267 for five against the West Indies in the fifth and final ODI at the Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday.
The Bengal boy who has been in the fringes for quite some time and has never really done justice to his talent in the previous five ODI appearances, grabbed the opportunity with both hands to score 104 (126 balls, 10x4, 1x6) before he had retire due to cramps.
Coming out to bat in the first over of the match with India reeling at 1/2, Tiwary conjured two important partnerships -- first with stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir (31, 41 balls, 2x4) for the third wicket and then 117 runs for the fourth wicket with Virat Kohli (80, 85 balls, 5x4).
With Virender Sehwag opting to rest, Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to bat. To his horror, Ajinkya Rahane (0) and Parthiv Patel (0) were dismissed of successive deliveries by Kemar Roach. Both deliveries kept low. While Rahane was trapped leg-before, Patel was played on by a delivery that kept very low.
The situation was certainly not conducive for someone who is yet to cement his place in the Indian ODI line-up with a highest score of 24 before this match.
However Tiwary started off with confident drive through the mid-off region off Andre Russell's bowling. With the pitch keeping on the slower side and the odd-ball shooting up, both Tiwary and Gambhir didn't take any undue risk and concentrated on taking singles hitting the odd boundary in between. Yet, the team's 50 came fairly quickly in the 11th over.