After narrow defeats in the first two matches of the series, Team India bounced back in style with a commanding seven-wicket victory over the West Indies in the third T20I in Guyana on Tuesday.
Suryakumar Yadav led the way for the Men in Blue with a blistering knock of 83 off just 44 deliveries, smashing 10 fours and four maximums along the way.
The India vice-captain stitched an 87-run partnership with No 4 batter Tilak Varma which not only helped the Indians recover from a jittery start but put them in a position from where they could chase the 160-run target down in a canter to keep their hopes in the five-match series alive.
Form is temporary. Surya is permanent!
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— FanCode (@FanCode) August 8, 2023
This was after left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav’s impressive performance with the ball after making his way back into the playing XI, collecting 3 for 28 from his four overs including the crucial wickets of Nicholas Pooran (20) and Brandon King (42) in the same over.
Kuldeep’s bowling, along with a tidy spell from left-arm orthodox spinner Axar Patel (1/24 from four) ensured West Indies fell 10-15 runs short in the end despite despite a blazing knock from captain Rovman Powell, who finished unbeaten on 40 off 19 deliveries.
The series thus ensures India remain on course to maintain their unbeaten record against the West Indies in a bilateral series featuring three or more matches since 2006. The two teams head to Florida in the United States, where the fourth and fifth T20Is take place over the course of the weekend.
Indian batters finally click as a unit
It wasn’t smooth sailing for the Indians throughout their chase though. As had been the case in the previous matches in the ongoing series, India ended up losing both openers cheaply. This despite the fact that Yashasvi Jaiswal was brought into the XI in place of Ishan Kishan as one of the two changes for the Men in Blue.
Jaiswal and Shubman Gill were dismissed for 1 and 6 respectively, both getting thick top-edge while going for ambitious shots, and perished within the powerplay as the West Indians sensed an opportunity to tighten their grip on the game and go for the series-clinching victory.
Mumbai Indians teammates Surya and Tilak however, refused to get bogged down by the pressure created by the early dismissals, and instead decided to take on the West Indian attack head on. Both batters would get off the mark with consecutive boundaries at the very outset of their innings, and their aggressive approach ensured India finished the powerplay at 60/2, well ahead of what the West Indians had managed at the same stage.
From thereon, Surya decided to don the role of the aggressor while Varma was happy to play second fiddle, though he did not shy away from the opportunity to dispatch the odd loose delivery towards the fence. SKY, meanwhile, was back at his lethal best, scoring all over the ground in his trademark 360-degree manner and playing all manners of strokes — from his quintessential scoop over fine leg after getting down on one knee to even producing a ‘Helicopter Shot’ that would’ve earned MS Dhoni’s approval.
Milestone Alert
A SKY special!
Suryakumar Yadav completes a of Sixes in T20Is
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He would go on to bring up his 14th T20I half-century — and his first fifty of the ongoing tour — in just 23 deliveries, and would’ve backed himself to end up with a match-winning hundred to his name. Surya, however, perished 17 runs short of the milestone after whipping a low full toss from Alzarri Joseph, hitting the ball straight down Brandon King’s throat at fine leg.
Surya’s blistering innings though, had brought the required run rate down to less than six and ensured that the Men in Blue wouldn’t have to sweat much in going past the finish line. Tilak took over from where SKY left off and assumed the charge of the aggressor to further diminish the West Indians’ hopes of mounting a last-minute comeback.
Tilak though, would count himself unlucky to miss out on back-to-back half-centuries in his debut series, remaining stranded on 49 as skipper Pandya finished things off with a towering six down the ground off his opposite number Powell in the 18th over.
Kuldeep bamboozles the Windies
Surya and Tilak, however, would’ve found the task of guiding the Men in Blue towards victory in the must-win clash a lot more difficult had it not been for Kuldeep’s superb spell which ensured the West Indians ultimately fell 10-15 runs short on a good batting surface at the Providence Stadium.
Openers King and Kyle Mayers got the Windies off to a promising start after skipper Powell opted to bat on what appeared to be a dry wicket, with the hosts adding 55 runs for the opening wicket before Mayers was dismissed off Axar Patel’s bowling.
Axar, who had bowled only two overs in the first match and wasn’t required at all in the second, ended up collecting his first wicket of the series and also got to bowl his full quota of overs, finishing with tidy figures of 1/24.
Axar Patel with the breakthrough, finally!#INDvWIAdFreeonFanCode #WIvIND pic.twitter.com/2pPMMHXzDT
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 8, 2023
Kuldeep’s spell, however, was worth its weight in gold. The left-arm wrist spinner strike shortly after Axar’s dismissal of Mayers, trapping Johnson Charles leg-before-wicket although skipper Pandya had to refer to the TV umpire after it was initially ruled ‘Not Out’.
The game-changer, however, was Kuldeep’s dismissal of the in-form Nicholas Pooran and King in his final over of the evening. Pooran, who had starred in Windies’ two-wicket win on Sunday with a 40-ball 67, had raced to 20 off just 11 deliveries and was starting to look ominous for the Indians when he was stumped off the left-arm spinner’s bowling. Four balls later, King was foxed by a googly and ended up flat-batting the ball straight to the bowler for a return catch while attempting a pull.
Pacer Mukesh Kumar, who has been one of the finds of this tour for the Indian team, would later strike off his first ball after Pandya introduced him as late as the 18th over with Shimron Hetmyer holing out to Varma at long off.
Skipper Powell tried undoing some of the damage caused by the Indian bowlers in the middle overs by going slam bang towards the end of the innings. Powell remained unbeaten on 40 off 19 deliveries, smashing a four and three sixes with left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh going for 18 runs in the penultimate over. Despite that, West Indies’ total of 159 appeared 10-15 runs short of what they could have achieved on that surface, something Powell would admit to after the match.
Brief scores:
West Indies 159/5 in 20 overs (Brandon King 42, Rovman Powell 40*; Kuldeep Yadav 3/28) lost to India 164/3 in 17.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 83, Tilak Varma 49*; Alzarri Joseph 2/25) by seven wickets.
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