Ajit Agarkar exults after taking the wicket of Chris Gayle in Kingston on Saturday. (AFP)

Kingston: Team India bowlers produced a miserly performance to restrict the West Indies to a modest 198 for nine in the second one-day International at the Sabina Park on Saturday.

Put into bat for the second successive time, the hosts showed none of the belligerence of the opening match at the same venue while the Indians showed much more accuracy with the ball and intensity on the field.

The West Indian innings revolved around Ramnaresh Sarwan’s unbeaten 98 that lifted them first from 43 for 4 and then 105 for 6 to give the total a semblance of respectability.

India’s new-ball bowlers Irfan Pathan (three for 45) and Ajit Agarkar (two for 25) set the tone for the proceedings with their tidy opening spells.

Sarwan, who faced 138 balls and hit seven fours and a six, shared a 60-run stand with Marlon Samuels (10) and later in the closing stages, stitched a valuable 38-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Carlton Baugh (21).

The vice-captain, who survived more than one run-out chances, moved into his 90s in style collecting two fours and a six off Pathan in the 49th over.

But he was stranded two short of a century as Jerome Taylor failed to rotate the strike.

Umpire ‘missing’

A piquant situation was averted when inadvertently a ball was bowled with only one umpire officiating. Square leg umpire Billy Doctrove had stepped out of the field to get an issue with the sightscreen sorted out.

Unmindful, Pathan took off from his run-up at the start of the ninth over. What’s more amazing was that main umpire Asad Rauf allowed him to go through the motion.

As Sarwan was called for a leg-bye by non-striker Lara, Raina at midwicket picked up the ball and hit the striker’s stumps. Instantly, an appeal for run-out went up.

When everyone looked up at the square leg umpire, Doctrove was missing.

The appeal was still referred to the third umpire while Rauf and Doctrove began the blame game in the middle. As word reached out from the third umpire, Rauf finally signalled the ball as dead.

Luckily for him, the replays also showed that Lara had made his ground.