India maintained its dominance over the West Indies in the T20i format, ending a clean 3-game T20I series victory in Kolkata on Sunday. India won the last T20I by 17 rounds to ensure the West Indies went home without a single win on their February tour.
Thanks to a stunning performance of power hit from Suryakumar Yadav and a brilliant 3/22 ban from Harshal Patel, India scored and successfully defended 185 to surpass Kieron Pollard’s West Indies.
India secured first place in the ICC T20I rankings with their 3-0 victory over the West Indies in the T20I series. Before the last T0I between India and the West Indies, England topped the ICC T20I rankings with 269 points, while India was one point behind.
India vs. West Indies, 3rd T20I: Highlights
ROHIT SHARMA SETS NEW INDIA CAPTAIN RECORD
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also set a new record by becoming the first Indian captain to lead the team to 3 or more series whitewash in T20I cricket. Rohit had previously led India to clean victories over Sri Lanka (2017), West Indies (2018) and New Zealand (2021). He is only the third captain after Pakistan’s Sarfaraz Ahmed (5) and Afghanistan’s Asghar Afghan (4) to reach this milestone.
India has been clinical with both the racquet and the ball throughout the series. Having already stolen the T20I series with an unassailable 2-0 lead on Friday, India made four changes to the squad after Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant created a bio-bubble break for the 3rd T20I and the T20Is against Sri Lanka later in received this month.
Unleashing his raw power en route to an explosive half-century, Suryakumar Yadav was well assisted by Venkatesh Iyer as India scored a challenging 184 on Sunday.
Suryakumar smashed seven sixes and a boundary in an exceptional display of clean shots before coming out for a 31-ball 65 in the final delivery. India has hit 86 runs in the last five overs.
Pace bowling all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer went unbeaten on 35 of 19 balls with four fours and two sixes at the other end as the duo assembled 91 runs from 37 balls for the fourth wicket to help India recover from a mini-slump medium order to recover.
After building a stance of 50+ in just 32 balls, the duo of Shreyas and Ishan failed to convert their starts and got out within seven balls.
It was a redesigned Indian batting order that was on display, with Ishan Kishan opening the batting order with Gaikwad while Shreyas batted Iyer at No. 3 and skipper Rohit Sharma dropped him at No. 4.
However, Ishan struggled to get going as he was dismissed for 34 balls out of 31 while Ruturaj folded for 4 balls in the 3rd over. Captain Rohit struggled in 4th place, managing just 7 balls from 15, but India emerged victorious thanks to Suryakumar’s and Iyer’s brutal attack.
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