India may have won the second ODI and thus the three-match ODI series against the West Indies but captain Shikhar Dhawan was subjected to a lot of criticism for decisions during the game. One of those decisions was to introduce premier spinner, Yuzvendra Chahal, quite late into the attack which allowed the West Indies batter to settle down in a rhythm leading to their score of 311/6 in their 50 overs after Nicholas Pooran won the toss and elected to bat first. Shai Hope and skipper Nicholas Pooran were tormentors of India's bowling, posting scores of 115 and 74 respectively. Though the Shikhar Dhawan-led Men in Blue made a comeback of sorts in the final 10 overs, thanks to Shardul Thakur's three wickets, former India spinner Murali Kartik felt India missed a trick by not giving Yuzvendra Chahal the ball early in the West Indies essay.
Notably, Yuzvendra Chahal was brought into the attack in the 17th over. By then, the Caribbean side had already put 99 runs on the scoreboard.
“The most important thing in the middle overs is to get wickets. And when you have the ability to take wickets, why do you have to wait for (West Indies to go into) T20 mode?” Murali Kartik said on FanCode.
“I have no issues with Deepak Hooda bowling. It's just that who is your best spinner in the side? And why do you have to wait for him (Chahal)? One of the main reasons why one-day cricket has been a problem is these middle-overs. Because the game keeps meandering away. When a weapon like Chahal can get you wickets, why do you ?” Murali Kartik said further.
Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan credited his team's all-round performance for taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series against the West Indies.
“It was a great team performance. Boys didn't lose the self-belief, that is amazing. Iyer, Sanju, Axar everyone was amazing, Even Avesh came out in his debut game and scored those 11 important runs. Thanks to IPL, they perform on a huge stage. I felt that we bowled nicely,” Shikhar Dhawan said in the post-match presentation.
“They got off to a good start. Hope and Pooran batted well. We thought if they could do it, we knew that we could do it. We started a little slow. Shubman batted well. The Iyer-Samson partnership made a huge difference. There was a run-out. But these things happen. Boys are learning,” Shikhar Dhawan stated.
India had an unlikely hero in the form of Axar Patel the batter in the match as he smacked a stunning 64 not out off only 35 balls to take the visitors across the line.
The Indians were on the ropes at 256/6 after Deepak Hooda made the walk back to the pavilion but Axar Patel had other ideas.
Not only did he launch a stunning counter-attack against the West Indies bowlers but also batted with confidence and held his nerve right until the end to turn the tide in India's favor from a position of a certain defeat.
Calling his knock “special” he was elated to see his team through when they needed him the most in the middle.
It's very special, to get it in a crucial, series-winning cause is amazing. When I went out, I aimed for 10-11 an over. We thought it could be done as we have IPL experience. We wanted to be calm and keep cover of the rate. This was special as this is my first ODI since 2017, even my first fifty came here. Winning the series too makes me feel wonderful,” Axar Patel concluded.
West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran too praised Axar Patel for showing nerves of style during the final stages of the contest which resulted in his side's second consecutive loss against the West Indies.
“We lost it in the last overs, Axar played well and we didn't hold our nerves. We could not keep things down in the last five overs. We felt that it got easier to hit spinners. And we gambled with Akeal bowling against left handers. One wicket would have opened up things but Axar played brilliantly. Hope's innings was impressive, it was exceptional as a batting group. We wanna win, we wanna win pretty bad in the next game. That's all we are aiming for,” Nicholas Pooran signed off.
Nicholas Pooran and company will try to salvage some pride in the third and the final One Day International match against India on Wednesday at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.
India captain Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, will look to complete a 3-0 whitewash against the home team which would be extremely special for his men, considering they would be achieving the clean-sweep in the West Indies.
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