The West Indies tour of India has been an entertaining watch so far. The T20 leg came to an end on Wednesday as India defeated the visitors by 67 runs in the 3rd T20 and won the series 2-1.
The toss was won by the visitors and quite expectedly, they decided to bowl first. The match started with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul taking the West Indies bowling attack to the cleaners; the openers managed a 135-run opening partnership in just 11.4 overs.
Sharma was the first to depart for a well-played 71 off just 34 balls. Rishabh Pant was promoted to number 3 ahead of Virat Kohli, but the young wicket-keeper got out for a duck. Then came the Kohli show as the skipper and Rahul took India to a mammoth total of 240.
West Indies always had a huge task on their hands but an injury to Evin Lewis made it even harder. The visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals and managed to scrape through to a total of 173 for the fall of 8 wickets, thanks to Kieron Pollard's 69 runs and Shimron Hetmyer's 41.
Here, we shall take a look at the three talking points from the match.
#3 Virat Kohli played one of his best T20 innings ever
Kohli in the post-match interview said that his knock of 70 runs from just 29 balls was one of the best T20 innings of his career. To be honest, that is true by any standard as Kohli has rarely if ever played so aggressively in the past.
He hit four hours and seven sixes, which means 58 of those 70 runs from Kohli were scored through boundaries. His innings was arguably the difference maker as he propelled the hosts to 240 when 210-215 looked like the more likely total.
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Also, we don't often relate six-hitting with the Indian skipper, and the fact that he struck seven tells us how unique this knock was. It was a proper gem from Kohli and it made us wonder - what can India's Superman not do?
#2 Lack of quality in the powerplays cost West Indies
It can be said that the way West Indies played in both the batting and the bowling powerplays cost them the game.
During the bowling powerplay, they were taken to the cleaners by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul; the visitors' bowling contingent looked devoid of ideas during the first six overs. They gave away 72 runs in that period, without taking a single wicket.
They didn't exactly bowl in the wrong areas but they certainly could have been much more smart and varied with their performance in the face of the Indian openers' brutal assault.
As far as the batting powerplay in the second innings goes, West Indies couldn't have had a worse start. They lost three quick wickets in the form of Lendl Simmons, Brandon King and Nicolas Pooran, while scoring just 17 runs.
That meant the visitors were behind the eight-ball right from the start of their innings, and they never really recovered from those early blows.
#1 Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul's fearless approach set the tone
To be very honest, India haven't yet nailed down the art of batting first in a T20 game. But against West Indies in Mumbai, there was a visible change in their approach.
It was fearless batting from the two openers as they destroyed the visitors' bowling attack. Rohit Sharma in particular never let anyone settle; he was the man who hit the West Indies spinners into orbit, while KL Rahul held up the other end.
It was India's different approach to batting first that won them the game. The home side learned their lessons from the second T20 and they knew that on a great batting wicket like the Wankhede, they would need at least 200 runs to keep the West Indies batting lineup in check.
That was exactly what they did. India executed their plans to perfection and thoroughly deserved the series win.
It's on to the one-day series now, which starts from the 15th of December in Chennai.
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