India vs West Indies 2022, 3rd T20I – Who Said What

India closed out the home tour against West Indies with another convincing victory, showing no mercy in sending back the visitors without even opening their account, as they registered consecutive clean-sweeps and sealed a 3-0 series win following an identical scoreline in the preceding ODI series.

The night on February 20 was made India’s by some truculent but eye-pleasing strokeplay of Suryakumar Yadav, whose stroke-laden 31-ball 65 launched India to a 180-plus total that was nowhere in sight at one point in time. Yadav found an able ally in Venkatesh Iyer, alongside whom his berserk 91-run stand off merely 37 balls was the biggest highlight of the game.

India’s new-look opening pair of Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad could not click, with Gaikwad perishing cheaply before Kishan and Shreyas Iyer steadied things with a half-century stand for the second wicket. Rohit Sharma at No. 4 looked out of place, managing only 7 off 15 before the Suryakumar-Venkatesh duo smacked West Indies to every corner of the Eden Gardens. Yadav’s knock had seven sixes, including his trademark 360-degree brilliance behind square, while Iyer was no small help with his 19-ball 35.

During the chase, West Indies were plagued by regular fall of wickets, which meant that Nicholas Pooran’s third half-century in as many games in the series went in vain. Harshal Patel exemplified his death bowling prowess again, well-assisted by Shardul Thakur, whereas Venkatesh doubled up with the ball after India lost Deepak Chahar to a hamstring injury.

Chahar had, however, set the tone early, striking twice in the 11 balls he bowled to prize out both openers cheaply with two jaffas. Patel was the pick with 3/22, while Thakur and Iyer picked two each, not allowing West Indies to muster any partnership of note bar the two forty-plus-run stands both involving half-centurion Pooran alongside Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd.

Winning skipper Rohit Sharma

The team that used to chase, there are not many people here from that squad. We wanted to bat first and chase as well. Because our middle order is fairly new. Happy with the series. Pretty much got everything that we wanted. We do understand we are very young as a team. We are still a good chasing side, but a lot of the players are missing. So we wanted the guys to understand how to bat in pressure situations. It was pleasing to see guys bailing the team out from situations. Good sign moving forward as a group and something to be proud of. Biggest take away from the ODIs was the middle order making it count. I was very impressed with our seam bowling in ODIs. And even here. Harshal is new. Avesh is on debut. Shardul is in and out. So challenge for us was to give them game time and see how they respond. When you play against a team like West Indies, you can test your batting and bowling. They bat very deep. It was a good challenge to defend in both games. Few guys miss out for the Sri Lanka series because we want to keep them fresh. But we have the World Cup in mind and we are trying to give game time for individuals. Sri Lanka will be a different challenge. But I am not someone who looks at the opposition, I would like to see what we can do as a team. Ground fielding, catching is something we can correct. Hopefully we can tick that box as well.

Player of the Match and Player of the Series Suryakumar Yadav :

Just wanted to replicate what I did in the first game. Needed someone to stay there after Rohit got out and get the team to a defendable total. We had a long chat in the team meeting as to how we are going to react under immense pressure and it came out very well. I just try to keep things simple. Being a little harsh on yourself in the nets, don’t hit every ball wildly and have some quality sessions. Excited for the next series.

Losing skipper Kieron Pollard

We were in the game for 15 overs, but we gave them 85-odd in the last five. We did have a good start with the bat, were 70-odd in 7 or 8 overs and weren’t able to capitalize. Nicholas showed his consistency. Rovman Powell showed he wants to be part and parcel of the white-ball teams. Coming to India is going to be difficult but the way the boys responded was good on our part. From the ODI perspective, we had a chance to win that series, bowling them out for 230-odd in second game and last game, so it is not all doom and gloom. These guys are finding their foot, it is like on the job training for them and we look forward to see what the future holds. From the T20 perspective, we went with experience for the (2021) World Cup and didn’t get the job done, but now we are working with what we got.