New Delhi: Nicholas Pooran's hard-fought 47-ball 61 run lone warrior knock went in vain as an all-round performance from the Indian cricket team helped them win the third and final T20I by 17 runs, complete a 3-0 series clean sweep over mighty West Indies at Kolkata's iconic Eden Gardens on Sunday. With this win, India have now become the No. 1 ranked team in T20 Internationals.
Earlier in the day, Kieron Pollard won the toss and invited India to bat first. Suryakumar Yadav (31-ball 65) and Venkatesh Iyer (19-ball 35) stitched a heroic 91-run stand for fifth wicket to add 86 runs in last five overs after a top-order failure and power India to 184/5 against Windies.
The hosts were off to a poor start as they lost the wicket of opener Rituraj Gaikwad (4) early in the innings. Shreyas Iyer, the new man in, joined Ishan Kishan in the middle and the duo steadied India's innings to push their team to 43/1 at the end of powerplay.
Hayden Walsh dismissed Iyer for 25 to break the solid 53-run partnership between him and Kishan. In the very next over, Kishan was bowled for 34 by Roston Chase. By the end of 10th over, India were 66/3. Rohit Sharma's move to come out to bat at No. 4 didn't work as he got bowled by Chase for 7 in the 14th over.
Surya and Venkatesh Iyer then added 91 runs in just 35 balls in the death overs to put India on top.
West Indies (Playing XI): Kyle Mayers, Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran(w), Rovman Powell, Kieron Pollard(c), Jason Holder, Roston Chase, Romario Shepherd, Dominic Drakes, Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh
India (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan