(ESPN) Finally, at the sixth time of asking, a total has been defended successfully on West Indies’ tour of India. Considering some of what has gone down in the last fortnight, India‘s 223 might not sound like a lot, but on an Indore pitch whose low bounce made big hitting difficult, Abhishek Sharma‘s 30-ball 69 ended up giving India an above-par total.
Take out his 14-runs-per-over innings, and the rest of the match, including extras, yielded around 10 an over for both the sides: India 154 in 15 overs, West Indies 209 in their 20. While India’s drop was more dramatic – from 115 for 1 in 8.1 overs to 135 for 5 and then a failure to finish big – West Indies kept losing wickets regularly to India, who welcomed the absence of dew.
Arshdeep Singh went to death bowling with the new ball to finally get Shai Hope for a low score after which India were pinpoint with their tactics to constantly stay just out of reach of West Indies throughout the innings. Axar Patel came back from figures of 3.3-0-63-0 in Ranchi to stall West Indies in the middle overs, part-timers Naman Dhir and Nitish Kumar Reddy did their job too, and Arshdeep and Prince Yadav used yorkers with the dry ball to shut the game out well before the 20th over.
Abhishek, Kishan promise another high-scorer
West Indies banked on their hero with the ball in the last match, Roston Chase, but Abhishek gave himself a bit of a sighter before he started to attack. Sanju Samson, on whom the onus fell to strike the first blow, was caught at midwicket in the second over, allowing Chase two left-handers to bowl at early in the innings.
Abhishek, though, let him bowl to his plan only for one over. In Chase’s second, he gave himself room and hit two sixes and a four. Ishan Kishan joined the fun by going after Keemo Paul as India raced away to 87 for 1 in the powerplay. Abhishek scored 50 of his 69 runs on the off side, Only once has he scored more off-side runs in an international innings. Along the way he became the quickest man to 2000 T20I runs.
Abhishek Sharma celebrates his fifty•AFP/Getty Images
After a brief breather, Chase had his own back when he had Kishan stumped for 37 off 18. This, unfortunately for West Indies, would not be the last six-and-out of the night.
In the immediate aftermath of Kishan’s dismissal, it became apparent for the first time on the night that this was not as much of a featherbed as Ranchi was. As the middle order tried tom keep up with the start given by Abhishek and Kishan, they kept falling.
Run-outs slow India down
Tilak Varma again looked in silken touch, but freakish wickets kept denying India the finishing kick. Reddy nicked one down the leg side, Varma ran himself out assuming a boundary had been hit and walked back to the crease, Axar failed to say no to Arshdeep when a single was not on. Given the chasing trends and the small boundaries, West Indies went into the break confident.
Roston Chase took two in an over•BCCI
With the new ball at the start of the second innings, the difficulties of hitting at will were more apparent. Mayank Yadav extracted a bit of seam movement in the first over, but Arshdeep didn’t take chances. He went round the wicket to Hope, and nailed two yorkers before bowling him out with a length ball.
Spinners bring India back
Shimron Hetmyer, dropped on 5 off Mayank, shook off the inertia of the West Indies start with 19 off Arshdeep’s second over, but the Yadavs, Mayank and Prince, still closed out the powerplay well to keep West Indies to 54 for 1.
With Kamil Pooran struggling to go quicker than a run a ball, Hetmyer had to take more risks, giving Dhir his fourth six-and-out of the series in the seventh over. Axar and Dhir proceeded to shut West Indies down for two overs, resulting in the wicket of Rovman Powell to make it 82 for 3 in the 10th over.
Pooran made a desperate attempt to swing at everything in Dhir’s third over, hitting three sixes and repairing his strike rate a little but his fourth attempt ended up in a boundary catch. Dhir now had five international wickets, all of them off the immediate ball after being hit for a six.
Naman Dhir got Shimron Hetmyer a ball after being hit for six•BCCI
The ball was dry, the spinners had done well all night, but Shreyas Iyer went back to pace as soon as Quentin Sampson walked out. India had scouted well, as Samspon struggles to hit high pace as well as he does spin.
Sherfane Rutherford and Sampson kept West Indies in the contest for the next four-and-a-half overs but only just. India were willing to exhaust the overs of their best quicks right then and there for a wicket, which eventually happened to go to Reddy, who did his job by bowling figures of 2-0-19-1.
Needing 65 off the last four, West Indies now needed the best of Rutherford, but with Arshdeep and Prince maintaining a good execution rate with their yorkers, he was left with a little too much to do. Oyer kept bowling his best bowlers to make sure Axar had 36 to defend in the last over.
Source: Kiskadee Watch
