India won the final one-day international by a wide margin of 200 runs to win the three-match series 2-1 on Tuesday. Sharda Thakur took 4/37 in the match.
India was put in to bat, and after reaching 351-5, their captain Hardik Pandya hit 18 in the final over for a 52-ball total of 70 unbeaten. In response, West Indies was all out for 151 in 35.3 overs.
This was Thakur’s highest ODI performance, surpassing his previous best of 4/52 against South Africa in Centurion in 2018.
In the post-game press conference, Thakur praised fellow pacer Muktesh Kumar for taking three early wickets and said, “Bowling unit bowled well and we were trying to put our best effort despite Windiest losing three at the top.”
He commented on his successful ball-spinning performance by saying, “I’ve never worried about people seeing me perform and critiquing me. On particular surfaces, it frequently occurs that fast bowlers are rested while spinners receive assistance, and vice versa. I simply want to keep making contributions that have an impact on how well my team performs.
“Over the past two years, I have been a member of the team. Since the team has high expectations for me, they have faith in me, and I want to keep providing the goods.
Thakur is not one of those who compete for his berth in the World Cup. “It was quite foolish of me to believe I would compete for a World Cup spot. I’ll provide whatever the squad requires of me, he declared.
“With the World Cup approaching, every game is important for us individually,” he continued.
A five-match T20 series between West Indies and India is also set, and it will begin on Thursday at Taraba. The fourth and fifth Twenty20 matches are scheduled for August 12–13 in Lauderhill, Florida.
Ishan Kashan’s three successive fifty-plus scores in the ODIs against the West Indies will mean little if he is not given a longer run at the top of the order for the next Asia Cup and beyond. The left-hander, who was assigned a special task of pursuing the bowlers from the first ball, has selflessly carried it out. Of course, with the new ball, there aren’t many demons in the West Indies’ bowling these days.
In the second over, Kashan could have been out caught at point, but the reprieve did little to curb his aggressive tendencies.
The essential term in the entire exercise is “intent,” with the 50-over game rapidly turning into a longer version of the T20 format. Eight fours and three sixes flowed from his bat, though not always from the sweet spot.
His innings of 77 off 64 balls extended his stellar Caribbean form. His opening partnership with Shulman Gill of 143 runs in 118 balls served as the cornerstone for India’s eventual score of 351/5, which led to a victory in ODIs by a massive margin of 200 runs and a comprehensive one in Test matches.
A triple strike by Muktesh Kumar (3/30), which brought the West Indies down to 17/3 in the seventh over, prevented them from mounting a successful pursuit. With the home team falling to 88/8 well before the halfway point of the innings, the game was quickly finished as a battle. Lazarre Joseph and Gudoks Motile put on a 55-run partnership, but it merely postponed the inevitable. This saved an epic devastation of epic proportions.
The West Indies were bowled out for 151 in 35.3 overs, demonstrating that their victory in the second ODI was an anomaly and that there remained a significant gap between the teams, even with India being without several first-choice players. Sharda Thakur (4/37) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/25) helped themselves to some easy scalps in the process.
Regular captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were absent from the series finale after skipping the second ODI on Saturday in Barbados. Rahul David, the team’s head coach, has emphasized that the team was not overly concerned with the outcome of each game and each series and was instead aiming to try out players in the lead-up to the World Cup in two months.
Does this indicate that Kashan is now a contender to unseat Rohit as the opener? There are always players ready to be tried thanks to India’s talent pool. However, the think tank should at least have a general concept of their top 11 or 15, which is not always the case with India, prior to a major event.
On Tuesday, Gill finally broke his slump with a score of around 80 at the top of the order, but he struggled to find his groove later in his innings. Sanju Samson nearly won the match with a better-than-run-per-ball 51, but he was softly dismissed—not for the first time in his career—despite having plenty of overs to bat and reach a far higher total and have a greater impact. However, with a significant portion of the innings remaining to capitalize, Kashan and Samson, who may be competing for one slot in the World Cup squad, had elevated the Indian run rate well beyond seven an over.
After falling short of expectations earlier in the lineup, Suryakumar Yadav was given the finishing job. He worked with acting captain Hardik Pandya to revive the scoring rate, which had dropped to just around six with 10 overs remaining. Surya did show off some of his 360-degree abilities with a hoick over fine leg and a slice over point, both blows going for maximums. In the final overs, a batsman doesn’t have to be fluent regularly, but get the few big smashes away that can make the crucial difference. However, a 30-ball 35 would not completely dispel any doubts about his prowess in the 50-over format.
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