Brilliant openers
Team India, who lost the toss and were forced to bat, got off to a flying start with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill. Gill was the most dangerous of the bunch. The player scored 64 runs in 53 balls with the help of 6 fours and 2 sixes. Dhawan, who is also the captain, fell three runs short of his century. Dhawan’s innings of 97 runs included 10 boundaries and 3 sixes from 99 balls. The opening partnership between the two made 119 runs. This start played a crucial role in India’s run to a great score.
Iyer also broke
Shreyas Iyer, who came in to bat at the third position, also put up a good batting display in the match. His score was 54 off 57 balls with the help of 5 fours and 2 sixes. He also went on to build a partnership of 104 runs with Dhawan for the second wicket.
Disappointing Sanju, the performance of the rest of the batters is as follows…
Malayalam player Sanju Samson, who was included in the playing eleven as India’s wicketkeeper in the match, disappointed with the batting. The player, who came to the crease fifth, got out following scoring just 12 runs off 18 balls. It remains to be seen whether Sanju, who got a good chance in the first ODI itself but might not capitalize on it, will get a place in the team. At the same time, Suryakumar Yadav (12 runs), Deepak Hooda (27 runs) and Axar Patel (21 runs) contributed to the other players. Team India scored 308 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
Windies’ start shook India
Chasing a target of 309 runs, the West Indies lost the wicket of Shai Hope who scored 7 runs early on, but Kyle Meyers and Shama Brooks, who combined for the second wicket, shook India. Both of them added 117 runs. Brooks scored 46 off 61 balls with 4 fours and 1 six, while Meyers scored 75 off 68 balls with 10 fours and a six. Apart from them, Brandon King, who scored 54 runs including 2 boundaries and sixes in 66 balls, also shone.
Excited for the last over
In the final overs, Akeel Hossain and Romario Shefade combined to strike and the West Indies raced to victory. Windies needed 15 runs to win in the last over by Mohammad Siraj. With Windies scoring 10 runs in the first 5 balls of the over, the target became 5 runs in the last ball. But Mohammad Siraj, who bowled the last ball without giving up his presence of mind, gave away only one run in that ball. With this, India won the match by 3 runs. Shepherd remained unbeaten on 39 off 25 balls and Akeel Hossain on 33. Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 wickets each for India.
