Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant covered up for a rare off day of the bowlers, hitting sparkling half centuries and leading India to a 6-wicket win to complete a 3-0 whitewash of the Windies at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai.
The last over of the match pretty summed up the Windies’ tale in this tour. Defending only 5 runs, Fabien Allen got Dhawan holed out at long on that brought the equation down 1 off 1. Manish Pandey, batting for the first time in this series, pushed it inches away from Allen, who failed to gather the ball cleanly allowing Pandey and Karthik to scamper through for a single to seal the match.
It wasn’t that close always though. India were the runaway favourites when Dhawan and Pant were batting together even till the 19th over. Dhawan had shown signs of returning to form in the 2nd T20I and on Sunday he decided to bring his A-game to the table with a career-best 92.
Dhawan’s knock, laced with 2 sixes and 10 fours, came when captain Rohit Sharma, quite uncharacteristically fell very early for 4. But West Indies were up against a different Dhawan tonight. He started off dispatching his nemesis Oshane Thomas for two cracking boundaries – one over mid-off, the other pulled over mid-wicket - in his first over. The real proof of Dhawan’s day came an over later when took apart the opposition captain Carlos Brathwaite, hitting him for three fours in the 4th over of the innings.
Giving him able company was Rishabh Pant, who became the 2nd youngest Indian to register to a T20I fifty after Rohit Sharma. Pant’s tale in the series was pretty much silimar to Dhawan’s, if not worse, where he threw away the opportunities with reckless shots. But not this time. Unlike the previous tow matches, he gave himself time and then decided to tee off with his trademark swiveling pull shots.
The 21-year-old hit three sixes and five fours in his 58-run knock off 38 balls but he wiill be disappointed with the way he got out when India could have won it easily with an over to spare.
Earlier, Pooran blasted four boundaries and as many sixes in his 25-ball unbeaten 53 to take West Indies’ total to 181 for 3. His blistering 87-run unbeaten partnership in 43 balls with fellow southpaw Darren Bravo (43 off 37 balls) enabled the team to move from 94 for 3 to 181.
Reeling after two crushing defeats, the West Indies showed the stomach to fight as they batted with a lot more purpose at the M A Chidambaram stadium here.
Pooran, who has been on the fringes for a while and did well in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), showed why he is rated highly, batting with a lot of enterprise.
He wasn't afraid to go for his shots and also employed the switch-hit on a few occasions, including hammering a six off Chahal. Bravo offered him great support and hit a couple of big sixers of his own.
Chahal, who got a lot of turn off the wicket, was the most successful Indian bowler with 2 for 28 from his four overs, but faced the heat towards the end when Pooran and Bravo went on the attack.
Washington Sundar, who took the wicket of Denesh Ramdin (15), was the other wicket-taker.
Young pacer Khaleel Ahmed had a good start to his spell but he couldn't make much of an impression. Experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar too remained without wickets.
Earlier, openers Shimron Hetmyer (26) and Shai Hope (24) got the visitors off to a brisk start and looked to score from the word go after captain Carlos Brathwaite won the toss and elected to bat.
Hetmyer, one of the success stories of the series for the Windies, cracked the first boundary in the second over bowled by Washington Sundar. Hope too got into the act in the next over from Khaleel.
The stylish right-hander hit the first six of the innings, lofting Krunal Pandya over long-on. He perished in going for another big hit, caught on the boundary by Sundar off Yuzvendra Chahal's first ball of the match. His contribution was 24 in a first wicket partnership of 51.
Hetmyer slammed four boundaries and a six in his 21-ball 26 but was dismissed when trying to cut a delivery from Chahal. The ball bounced a little more than the southpaw expected and his shot was snaffled by Pandya.
India brought in Chahal and Sundar for Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, who have been rested while West Indies retained the XI that played in Lucknow.