Indian batters wreak havoc at Wankhede, clinch series 2-1
By Anurag Mallick Published on 12 Dec 2019 8:32 AM IST
Hyderabad: In what was expected to be a cracker of a game, turned out to be one as India won the 3rd T20 by a handsome margin of 67 runs at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai and clinched the three-match series 2-1.
West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl first as chasing totals has always been relatively easier for a team at Wankhade. Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul walked in and went all guns blazing. The duo brought up 100 in the 8th over.
Rohit got his 50 and continued playing the big shots. Rahul too brought up his fifty. Celebrations fell silent as Rohit got out to Kesrick Williams when the score was 135. In this process, Rohit became the third player in the history of the game to hit 400 sixes after Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle.
India sent in Rishabh Pant to slog a few but he got out for a second-ball duck.
The crowd erupted in huge cheers as Virat Kohli walked in. He went for the big hits from ball one, something he usually doesn't do. Virat sent almost every delivery to the fence. His aggression was well supported by his classy shots as he brought up his fifty in 21 balls. The entire world, especially the Windies bowlers saw the animated side of Virat Virat as he finished the innings in style and took India to 240. KL Rahul scored a brilliant 91.
With a mountain to climb, the Windies lost their first 3 wickets for 17 runs. Shimron Hetmyer and Keiron Pollard held the innings together for a while with big hits and kept the scoreboard ticking. Kuldeep Yadav sent Hetmyer back, with Manish Pandey taking a magnificent catch, and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar packed Pollard as India sealed an emphatic win.
It was only a formality after that as India restricted Windies to 173/8 and won the match by 67 runs. Rahul was adjudged the Man of the Match for his 91 and Virat was declared the Man of the Series for his scores of 94*, 19 & 70* with a strike rate of 190. He also hit 7 sixes in this innings, his highest in this format.
Rohit and Virat ended the year as the joint highest run-getters in T20s with 2,633 runs. India will now take on the Windies in a 3-match ODI series beginning December 15 in Chennai.
