Top bowling spells from spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and pacers Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur helped India crush West Indies by 119 runs in the rain-hit third and final ODI of the series here at Queen's Park Oval on Thursday
West Indies Nicholas Pooran and Akeal Hosein during the 3rd ODI match between West Indies and India, at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain on Wednesday. Source/PTI
After facing a crushing defeat in the three-match ODI series against India, West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran said that he is looking forward to the upcoming T20I series. Top bowling spells from spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and pacers Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur helped India crush West Indies by 119 runs in the rain-hit third and final ODI of the series here at Queen's Park Oval on Thursday. "It was a tough one for us. We did a lot of right things in the first two games. I think we tried up our best, the boys performed well. But there were a lot of games in a short span of time. As a batting group, it was going to be a challenge with DLS coming into play. We did get some partnerships, but not as many as we wanted, that cost us the game," said Pooran in a post-match presentation.
"We gained a lot in this series after coming from Guyana. The bowlers bowled well in the powerplay, they didn't get wickets, but that's fine. The guys are getting more confident with every game. Very excited with our T20 team, looking forward to the game on Friday," he added. India has completed a clean sweep of 3-0 over the hosts. Following this, both the teams will be squaring off for the five-match T20I series, starting from Friday. India can walk away with a lot of positives after this match as their batting was great, lead from the front by openers Shikhar Dhawan (58) and Shubman Gill (98*).
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Setting a target of 257 in 35 overs after the match was hit by rain, Windies batters never looked as if they were in the game as Indian bowlers feasted on them. The hosts fell prey to a world-class bowling attack with their careless shot selection. Chahal (4/17), Siraj (2/14) and Thakur (2/17) were extremely economic with the ball and delivered timely blows to their opponent. Chasing 257, West Indies got off a nightmarish start, losing opener Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks in the second over to pacer Mohammed Siraj.
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Following this, opener Shai Hope and Brandon King resumed the chase for the hosts. They both maintained solid running between the wickets. King was the aggressor during the partnership. Hope-King added 47 runs to their stand before the former was stumped by wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson for 22 off 33 balls on the delivery by spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. At the end of 10 overs, West Indies was 48/3, with King (24*) and Pooran (1*). Captain Nicholas Pooran was next up on the crease. The 12th over was bowled by pacer Prasidh Krishna and it turned out to be expensive, with Pooran-King smashing four boundaries in it collectively. It was spinner Axar Patel who gave India their fourth wicket, removing King, who was looking threatening. He had scored 42 off 37 balls before he was trapped leg before wicket by the bowler.
Keacy Carty was next up on the crease. Pooran's game became more attacking, smashing Deepak Hooda for a four and a six and Axar for a four as well. The duo took the hosts to the 100-run mark at end of 18 overs, with Pooran being the aggressor. Shardul Thakur broke the 29-run stand between the duo, bowling out Carty for just five runs off 17 balls. At this point, half of Windies line up was back in the hut at 103. Jason Holder was the next batter to arrive on the crease. The all-rounder was making his return to white-ball cricket after a while and had a task in hand to build a solid stand with his skipper. Prasidh finally got his first wicket of the day, dismissing the danger man Pooran for 42 off 32 balls after being caught by Dhawan at mid-on.
Thakur gave another jolt to the hosts, sending back Akael Hosein for just one run after skipper Dhawan took another great catch. There was not much batting left with the Windies except for Holder, who needed to pull off something really great to guide his team to a consolation win. Things continued to go downhill for Windies, with Paul dismissed for a duck by Chahal after he was caught by Thakur at point while attempting to reverse sweep. Holder was running out of partners at this point, now joined by Hayden Walsh. Walsh was the ninth wicket down at a score of 137 after being caught by Dhawan at slips.
Jayden Seales was the last player dismissed, sent back to the pavilion by Chahal. Windies were bundled out for 137. They had lost the match by 119 runs and India had completed a 3-0 clean sweep in the series. Chahal finished as the leading bowler for India with 4/17. Siraj and Thakur also took two wickets. Krishna and Axar got one scalp each.
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