Gill, Thakur shine in India's massive win; beat windies 3-1

India flexed their batting muscles to beat hapless West Indies by 200 runs in the series decider in Tarouba. They have now won 13 consecutive ODI series against West Indies. 

Playing without the veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli once again, India rode on half centuries from Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson and stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya to post a colossal total of 351. 

Bowlers then backed the exceptional display of batters and wrapped up the West Indian innings for a lowly 151. Mukesh Kumar dented their chase with three early wickets. And when Shardul Thakur also picked up two scalps in his successive overs, it left them reeling at 50/6. A 59 run stand between Alzarri Joseph and Gudakesh Motie for the 9th wicket only delayed the inevitable. 

Earlier in the day, after Shai Hope elected to field, Kishan and Gill gave India a rollicking start of 143 inside the first twenty overs. Both openers reveled the ball coming onto the bat, which was not the case in the first two ODI in Bridgetown. Kishan, dropped by Keacy Carty on 9, made full use of the reprieve and went on to score a brisk 77. It was his third half century in as many matches in the series. 

Kishan was initially troubled by Kyle Myres. Bowling around the wicket with the new ball, Mayers beat his outside edge twice in three overs. Kishan responded by charging down the wicket and smashing him for back to back fours. 

Gill got the opportunity to face just one ball in the first two overs and opened his account in third, with a strong front foot pull off Jayden Seales. In his next over, Gill hit him for two more boundaries, the first was a short-arm jam and the second via a punch bisecting the fielders between cover and point. 

Gill and Kishan took India’s score to 73 by the end of the tenth over. Gill focused on rotating the strike, once the field restrictions were relaxed. Kishan, though, kept on playing his shots. First, he bludgeoned Joseph for a towering six and a four, and then hit Motie down the ground. Romario Shepherd was next on radar for Kishan as he deposited him to the stands to reach 49 off 39 balls, and four balls later, he notched up his fifty. 

Yannic Cariah broke the opening partnership by getting Kishan stumped for 77 off 64 balls. The leg spinner deceived the southpaw in the flight and with the turn, as Kishan tried to use his feet.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, playing only his second ODI, failed to make any considerable impact as he departed for 8. 

Gaikwad’s wicket brought Sanju Samson to the crease. The Rajasthan skipper looked to attack right from the onset, and hit three sixes in the first 13 balls he faced. He was ruthless against Cariah, in particular, taking him for 28 runs off just ten balls. And even though Motie kept him on his toes conceding only four off 12 balls, Samson rushed to his fifty in 39 balls. 

Samson and Gill added 69 runs inside 9 overs, the latter contributing 18 off 12 balls. Shepherd broke the stand with the prized scalp of Samson as the 28 year old failed to clear mid off. His wicket also resulted in a drop in the scoring rate. Samson fell in the 32nd over and India could only muster 23 runs in the next eight overs. 

Gill, who looked set to produce a big score, fell too during this phase. Motie’s length ball stuck in the pitch and Gill was surprised by the slowness of the delivery, resulting in an easy catch to short midwicket. 

Suryakumar Yadav, who walked out six, showed us a glimpse of his T20 elegance. He scored 35 off 30, which comprised a six on each side of the wicket behind square. Towards the back end of the innings, Hardik went berserk and hit a few lusty blows to propel India to a gigantic total. 

West Indies started the run chase on a terrible note as they lost opener Brandon King in the very first over. His opening partner Kyle Myres soon followed when he chopped one onto his stumps.  Mukesh Kumar, who was rewarded with the first two wickets bowling the right channels, kept peppering the good length outside off to remove WI skipper Shai Hope, reducing WI to 17 for 3. 

Jaydev Unadkat, playing his first ODI in nearly ten years, took just five balls to return back amongst international wickets.  He got Carty to edge one to the right of first slip where Gill pouched a low catch. Shimron Hetmeyer and Shepherd tried to revive the WI innings, but not for long as they fell to Shardul Thakur

Much like the opening match of the series, West Indies’ lower order offered little resistance and failed to put up much fight against Kuldeep Yadav’s variations. Joseph and Motie caused a few problems to the Indian bowlers and kept them at bay for almost ten overs. Thakur was brought back into the attack and as often he delivered. He first bounced out Joseph then rattled Seales’ stumps in the very next over to conclude the match.