India vs West Indies 3rd T20: 3 reasons why Windies lost the match

The fate of the series already decided, the final T20 match was a dead rubber. The idea of Team India without MS Dhoni didn't go well with the Chennai crowd, as a result, many tickets were unsold. West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first. The series already in the kitty meant captain Rohit Sharma could test the bench strength. Therefore Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar got a game to showcase their skills.

The openers took Windies off to flyer smashing 51 runs for no loss inside powerplay. Apparently, this was the first 50+ opening partnership for Windies in Asia in the last 15 innings. Introduction of Chahal got the first breakthrough for India. It was Darren Bravo and Nicholas Pooran who counterattacked Indian bowling attack and took Windies to an above par score of 181 on the board.

In reply, India was jolted early with the big wicket of Rohit Sharma in the third over. Soon KL Rahul followed the skipper and was out in the last over of powerplay. But it was Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant who took the responsibility to steer India steadily towards the target. But once again the Indians took it to the last over even when both Dhawan and Pant were striking cleanly. Pant and Dhawan got out to play extravagant shots and a nervous Manish Pandey nearly pulled a tie for India there. But the match ended in a dramatic fashion and India managed to score 1 run of the last ball and ended the three-match series 3-0.

Here are 3 reasons why Windies lost:

#3 Failure to capitalize on the big wicket of Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma has been in the best form of his career. Especially in this limited over series against Windies. He has been lethal against all the bowlers. But today it was not Hitman's day. When India needed most runs to chase the total down, the man in form Rohit Sharma failed to deliver.

He was out for a mere 4 runs. So Windies had a fabulous start to their target defence. But they failed to capitalize on the big wicket and let Shikhar Dhawan settle down for a big score. Oshane Thomas their lead bowler so far couldn't make an impact with extra pace. So that is one of the reasons Windies lost today's match.

#2 Dhawan-Pant partnership

When the man in form and skipper Rohit Sharma failed, it was his partner Dhawan and Rishabh Pant who steadied the chase. It was the clean striking of Dhawan at one end and the determined Pant at the other. Dhawan was in no mood to get out tonight and played his shots to all parts of the ground. Soon Pant settled in and raced to a half-century in just 33 balls. The duo bought down the run rate from 11 to 8 in no matter of time.

India was cruising along well with the 130-run partnership between the duo. Dhawan missed out on a well deserved century as he ended up on 92 and perished to a glory shot in the last over. Windies literally had no answers to the onslaught from the dashing duo. In a matter of 10-12 overs, both had drifted the game into India's favour.

#1 Lack of wicket-takers in middle overs

There was always that uncertainty with respect to this bowling attack of Windies. A couple of debutants in the side, it was always going to be difficult for them to win games while defending. The likes of Keemo Paul and Oshane Thomas had delivered for windies in their opening spell in this series.

But this side lacked the skilful bowlers who could penetrate well in the middle overs to put pressure on the batting unit. They were toothless tonight as Dhawan-Pant duo milked them for runs and never let them have an impact. The likes of Khary Pierre and Kieron Pollard had no plan to unsettle the batsmen. There was no pressure created from any end and it gave the batsmen liberty to score freely and keep the scoreboard ticking. This is one of the major reasons why Windies lost today even after batting really well. Their bowlers let them down badly when their batting unit had done their job.