West Indies vs India 2022: 5th T20I – Who Said What

India won the fifth T20I against West Indies by 88 runs in Lauderhill, Florida, on August 7, Sunday, and wrapped up the five-match series 4-1.  With this, India also completes a victory (both home and away) against West Indies in the same calendar year.

India made several changes in the squad, including giving Hardik Pandya the captaincy hat in absence of Rohit Sharma. India’s stand-in captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first. Shreyas Iyer scored a well-made 64 runs off 40 balls, opening the innings. Deepak Hooda also contributed with 38 runs off 25 balls. India finished with 188 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Odeon Smith starred with the ball, picking up three wickets.

Windies was off to a slow start as their top three were dismissed for a score of 0, 13, and 10 respectively. Shimron Hetmyer, at number four, kept his side in the game, scoring 56 off 35 balls, but none of the other batters who followed got into a double-figure score. They were eventually dismissed for 100 in 15.4 overs. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi bagged four wickets for 16 runs in 2.4 overs.

Losing captain, Nicholas Pooran said:

We were just not good enough. We didn’t learn from our mistakes. We just weren’t up to the challenge, just didn’t put enough partnerships. To come up against tough teams, we need to be good in execution. Be it in the batting group or bowling group, we have a lot of catching up to do. I just hope that we as a team learn from these losses. We’re building towards the World Cup and hopefully, we can do that right. (On Holder opening the batting) Obviously, King and Mayers didn’t play today, so we needed someone to open. Just thought of giving him an opportunity to bat higher up. We all know what he can do down the order. It (playing two spinners) is something we have to think about in the future. India have shown why they are better than us in this series.

Winning captain, Hardik Pandya said:

It’s very special to get a chance to lead your country. Obviously on then winning the game means a lot to me. Captain Ro did everything well before this game, so I just ensured that we kept doing the good work. (On captaincy) Why not? If given a chance, I’ll be more than happy to do it. But for now, we have a World Cup coming, it’s about getting better as a team. The kind of talent the players we have and the freedom we’re getting, this is the New India. I can see players playing with freedom and not worrying about failing. And when you do that, you tend to do special things.

Player of the Match, Axar Patel said:

I was just focussing on keeping things simple, instead of trying too many things. Was just looking to use the surface to my advantage. The surfaces (in this series) have been helpful for me, so that has proved advantageous to me. Both in the ODIs and T20s, the pitches were fairly same. I don’t mind people calling me just an all-rounder, if I do well with the ball, I’ll be a bowling all-rounder, if with the bat, then a batting all-rounder.

Player of the Series, Arshdeep Singh said:

Feels really good. As Rahul (Dravid) Sir says, we are a process-based team. We are just looking to do the process properly, not thinking too much about the results and that’s what is helping me in my bowling. It’s about being adaptable (as a bowler) and a lot of credit goes to the team management for giving me clarity. The way the youngsters are being backed is nice, the feel of the dressing room is really good. Helps as a youngster to come in and do whatever you do in your IPL teams/State teams.