- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
TEAM India turned the wheel around fast after their shocking 0-3 loss in the one-day international series in South Africa last month as they handed the West Indies a similar humiliation at home by winning the third and final match of the three-game series by 96 runs on Friday (11).
Winning the toss and batting first at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, Rohit Sharma’s side scored 265 in 50 overs. The Caribbeans made a mess of their chase before their tail wagged to take them to 169 in 37.1 overs.
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This was the first time that India whitewashed the West Indies in a one-day series at home. They won the first match by 6 wickets and second by 44 runs. The last time a team whitewashed its opponent in the same format in India was in 1983-84 when the West Indies hammered the hosts 5-0.
India thump West Indies by 6 wickets in first one-day international
India, who made four changes for the inconsequential match after clinching the series, had a poor start as big batters Sharma (13 off 15 balls) and Virat Kohli (0 off 2) departed within two balls while Shikhar Dhawan (10 off 26) fells 26 runs later to leave the scoreboard reading 42 for 3. It was then when Shreyas Iyer (80 off 111) and wicket-keeper-batter Rishabh Pant (56 off 54) added 110 runs for the fourth wicket to bring the Indian innings back on track. Suryakumar Yadav managed only six runs in seven balls but Washington Sundar (33 off 34) and Deepak Chahar (38 off 38) added 57 vital runs for the seventh wicket to take India towards a 250-plus total.
The hosts were bowled out in the final delivery of the innings with Jason Holder finishing as the top bowler with four wickets for 34 runs. Alzarri Joseph and Hayden Walsh Jr picked a couple each while Fabian Allen had one.
The West Indies faced yet another batting collapse and despite stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran’s 39-ball 34, were reduced to 82 for 7 in the 19th over, leaving the Indian bowlers with a big opportunity to have an early break.
But the visitors’ tail-enders showed more spirit than their top order as was the case in the first two games and they took the game till the 38th over. Joseph (29 off 56) and Odean Smith (36 off 18) added 40 runs for the eight wicket and Joseph and Walsh Jr (13 off 38) 47 runs for the ninth to delay the inevitable.
Indian seamers Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, the hero of the second game, claimed three scalps each while Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav, who played a game after July last year, took two each.
Iyer was adjudged the player of the match while Krishna, who picked nine wickets in the series, was chosen as the player of the series.
Both the teams will now move to the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, for a three-game T20 international series starting February 16.
Brief scores: India: 265 all out in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 80, Rishabh Pant 56; Jason Holder 4/34) beat West Indies 169 all out in 37.1 overs (Odean Smith 36, Nicholas Pooran; Prasidh Krishna 3/27) by 96 runs.
