Match Details
Arya- It was Indian stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya who won the toss and opted to bat just to give themselves enough opportunities to bat first. It was Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer who opened the batting from India and got them off to a brisk start. The duo continued the tactics employed by India all through the series. Iyer in particular was the attacking partner, striking boundaries at will. Ishan Kishan departed soon after in the 5th over but that didn’t stop India from going after the West Indies bowlers.
Iyer was joined by Deepak Hooda in the middle and the duo continued to take the attack to the West Indies bowlers. Fours and sixes were coming thick and fast for India as the scoreboard kept soaring along. Both the batters struck some splendid shots during their partnership of 76 runs stand which laid the foundation for a late order surge by the power-hitters like Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik. Samson made 15 before departing while Hooda and Iyer made 38 and 64 each.
The West indies bowlers was impressive after the 10th over and did tie down the Indian batters during that stage. Hardik Pandya struggled to find the boundaries early on but took the attack to Jason Holder in the penultimate over, as he smashed him for 17 runs to take India over the 180 mark. It was some good hitting by Hardik which eventually got India to a score of 188 in their allotted 20 overs.
West Indies again needed a good start to begin with but it was indeed a strange decision to send Jason Holder as the opener. He didn’t bother the scorers as he was castled by Axar Patel on the 3rd deliver of the run-chase. Shamrah Brooks struck a six of Axar Patel in the 5th over and was dismissed the very next delivery as West Indies were reduced to 24/2. Axar finished the over off with the wicket of Devon Thomas.
Shimron Hetmyer started in an aggressive manner and took the attack to the Indian bowlers. He smashed a couple of fours straight up and then smashed as many as four sixes during his half-century. However, he got no support from the other end as the spin trio of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi spun a web around the Windies batters and they could never really recover from that.
From 83/4 in the 12th over, West Indies had no answers in front of Ravi Bishnoi and Kuldeep Yadav as the two wrist spinners bowled some immaculate line and lengths and allowed the pitch to do the rest. They couldn't quire read the pace of most of the deliveries and was caught on the crease on several occasions. While Bishnoi took four wickets, it was three apiece for Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel.