The Indian pace trio of Deepak Chahar, Mohammad Siraj and Prasid Krishna ran through the West Indies batting line-up, dismissing the visitors for 169 in 37.1 overs.
Ahmedabad: India ended the ODI series on a high note as the Men in Blue defeated the Nicholas Pooran-led West Indies by 96 runs to white-wash series 3-0 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Opting to bat first after a bumpy start with the help of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant staged India’s recovery by scoring 80 and 56 respectively to pose a decent total of 265 in 50 overs.
Pacer Jason Holder was the pick of the bowlers for West Indies, taking four wickets for 34 runs in eight overs and also taking a maiden in the process.
In response, the Indian pace trio of Deepak Chahar, Mohammad Siraj and Prasid Krishna ran through the West Indies batting line-up, dismissing the visitors for 169 in 37.1 overs. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav also made a successful comeback with two wickets.
Mohammed Siraj was the first bowler to strike, trapping Shai Hope with a sharp nip-backer to hit him flush on the back pad. Hope didn’t take the review as replays later showed the ball was missing the stumps.
In the next over, Chahar returned to take out King and Shamarh Brooks in the space of four balls. While King nicked an outswinger to first slip, Brooks sliced the ball straight to point, departing without troubling the scorers.
Darren Bravo and Nicholas Pooran amassed some boundaries but Prasidh Krishna broke the 43-run stand for the fourth wicket in the 14th over. Bravo played an expansive drive away from the body and edged to second slip. The extra bounce in the pitch helped Krishna in taking out Jason Holder as the ball hit the shoulder of the bat while defending and edge flew to slip fielder.
Two balls later, Fabian Allen fell for a golden duck, enticed in driving forward by a returning Kuldeep Yadav. But the googly took the edge behind to Rishabh Pant. Allen took the review but replays showed a spike on UltraEdge.
Yadav returned in his next over to take out captain Nicholas Pooran, who went hard on the drive and edged to slip fielder. But Odean Smith gave a stunning exhibition of his clean ball-striking, taking Yadav for fours through down the ground and extra cover. It was followed by back-to-back sixes over both sides of ‘v’.
Smith had luck on his side as Suryakumar Yadav dropped an absolute sitter at mid-off off Siraj the unlucky bowler. After hitting Yadav for another six over long-on, Smith had a streaky boundary off an outer edge off Siraj. Two balls later, Siraj ended Smith’s short-lived blitzkrieg as the right-handed batter mistimed to cover.
Alzarri Joseph and Hayden Walsh frustrated India with a 47-run stand for the ninth wicket. Siraj broke the stand with a short ball directed towards Walsh, and the left-handed batter gave a simple catch to leg gully. Krishna finished off the match as Joseph pulled and top-edge flew to deep mid-wicket.
Brief Scores:
India: 265 all out in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 80, Rishabh Pant 56; Jason Holder 4/34).
West Indies: 169 in 37.1 overs (Nicholas Pooran 34; Prasidh Krishna 3/27, Kuldeep Yadav 2/51, Deepak Chahar 2/41, Mohammad Siraj 3/29).
(With Agency Inputs)
