Staff Writer – Archi
In the end it ended the way it was expected as India won the Twenty20 series 3-0 against West Indies by winning the last match at Chennai in South India by six wickets. It was a dominating show by the hosts who thrashed the Windies 2-0 in the Test series, then bagged the One-Day International series 3-1 with one match ending in a tie.
It’s true that West Indies were never expected to put up much of a challenge given their poor state of cricketing affairs back home. But their reigning World T20 champions status raised hopes of some close contest in the last leg of the series. But except the last match, they fizzled out quite tamely.
As far as the numbers are concerned, Windies have lost all nine games on the trot in Asia since their 2016 World Twenty20 triumph.
“In the first game, we showed our fight, we showed our belief with the ball. Second game, we were blown away, and in the third game we batted excellently, but the game got taken away by us from a massive partnership and we still fought till the end. I mean, three-nought looks bad, and it looks embarrassing for me as captain as well, but the performances we gave, and the fight and the fact that we came together to use our resources to the best of our abilities was the hallmark for this short series for me,” skipper Carlos Brathwaite said looking back on his side’s show in the shortest format of the game.
For India it was a confidence boosting show before they leave for a two-month-long tour Down Under in the next few days.
Carlos Braithwaite. Photo courtesy https://www.sportsmax.tv/
“When you win a series like this, you are high on confidence and it is all about taking that confidence there. We have to keep repeating the performances. It is a never-ending story,” said stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma, who became the first batsman in the world to score four T20 centuries.
He said the team had ticked quite a few boxes during the series and fielding was one of them.
“We ticked a lot of boxes. Particularly, I am happy how we fielded. I think we fielded really well in the tournament. In batting and bowling, there will be mistakes and there will be some good performances,” Rohit said.
The clean sweep came at a time when India decided to rest their regular skipper Virat Kohli and former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But the youngsters rose to the challenge well.
Rohit praised newcomer Krunal Pandya and said India will benefit immensely from fearless cricketers like him. “Krunal is a street-smart cricketer who is never afraid of any doing stuff on the field. I am impressed with how he approached these three games. He has got great ability to play for India for a long period of time,” he felt.
Youngster Khaleel Ahmed is another good find of the series and can be the answer to India’s long search for a left-arm pacer. From feeling nervous after getting his maiden India call-up ahead of the Asia Cup to winning India games with the ball in the series against West Indies, the 20-year-old has indeed started on the right foot.
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