VVS Laxman lauds Shivam Dube on his maiden fifty against West Indies

The West Indies Cricket team once again showed why they are one of the most unpredictable sides in world cricket, especially in the shortest format of the game- Twenty20 Cricket. Riding on the back of an imperious batting performance- spearheaded by Lendl Simmons‘ unbeaten 67, the defending world champions chased down 171 in 18.3 overs.

But, if we were to take the result out of the equation for a second, one can’t look past the impact all-rounder Shivam Dube left with the bat. With the right-handers finding it difficult to get going against the left-arm spinners, Kohli pulled off a great move when he promoted left-handed Shivam Dube ahead of himself.

And, Dube responded in the same manner as he had done with the ball in the series decider against Bangladesh. The West Indies bowlers decided to ploy the short-pitch stuff to the all-rounder and Dube kept on dispatching them to the boundary. The all-rounder shellacked the West Indians to the tune of 54 off just 30 balls, striking at the rate of 180.

Naturally, fans, as well as pundits, were in awe of Dube’s innings and VVS  Laxman took to Twitter where he wrote, *Great win for the West Indies, once again showing why they are such a dangerous team in the shorter format. Even with the dew, some of the striking was top class. Happy with the way Shivam Dube capitalised on the promotion in the batting order. Must be a cracker in Mumbai #IndvWI ”

Great win for the West Indies, once again showing why they are such a dangerous team in the shorter format. Even with the dew, some of the striking was top class. Happy with the way Shivam Dube capitalised on the promotion in batting order. Must be a cracker in Mumbai #IndvWI pic.twitter.com/w24gTHNon4

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) December 8, 2019

Lendl Simmons stars in another successful run-chase against India

It was a great chasing effort by the West Indies. And, it was their opening pair of Lendl Simmons and Evon Lewis (40), who set the tone for the run-chase with a whirlwind 73-run stand for the opening wicket. The duo had their fair share of luck though when both of them were dropped in the space of 2-3 balls by Washington Sundar and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant giving them the reprieve off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

On a track where ball wasn’t spinning much and due making substantial impact in the second half, Indian spinners were rendered ineffective as the likes of Simmons, Shimron Hetmayer (23 off 14 balls) and Nicolas Pooran (38* off 18 balls) kept sending the ball into the orbit, ensuring there was no twist in the tale despite Virat Kohli’s whirlwind stunner to dismiss Lendl Simmons.

 Watch: Dane Vilas’ stunning scoop in MSL 2019