Kingston, May 21 :

In the twinkling of an eye, Dwayne Bravo was transformed from villain to hero, when he bowled Yuvraj Singh with two balls to spare in the second One-day International on Saturday to hand West Indies a thrilling one-run victory.

West Indies successfully defended a modest target of 199 to level the five-match series at 1-1, after India had clinched the first ODI by five wickets with one ball to spare.

Expensive in his three previous overs, Bravo was entrusted with the final over. Tailender Munaf Patel stole a single to bring Yuvraj into strike and left-hander hit successive boundaries. The next ball, however, was simply too good for Yuvraj, whose 93 from 121 contained eight fours and one six. Yuvaraj was completely bamboozled by the delivery and was left shattered when he heard the stumps rattle behind him.

Ramnaresh Sarwan had been the hero of the West Indies innings. He was left stranded agonisingly close to his third ODI hundred, a painstaking, undefeated 98. Sarwan faced 138 from balls, and struck seven fours and one six, after the West Indies started disastrously

losing their openers inside the first three overs.

Irfan Pathan was India’s most successful bowler with 3/45 off nine overs. Ajit Agarkar supported him with 2/25 while Ramesh Powar collected 2/38.

India laboured to 60/4 in the 17th over, as the three West Indies fast bowlers Ian Bradshaw, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor put them under early pressure. Yuvraj and Raina steadied the innings but three wickets in the space of 22 balls put left India jittering on 134/7.

Ramesh Powar (12), then ,added 43 with Yuvraj. When Marlon Samuels dismissed him, India needed 21 with 3.3 overs left. But Gayle caught and bowled Harbhajan Singh (1) in the 49th over, leaving Yuvraj and Munaf to bring achieve the target. The third ODI will be played next Tuesday at Warner Park in Basseterre.