Blitzkriegs from Delhi duo Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant enabled India complete a 3-0 sweep against West Indies in the T20I series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Dhawan and Pant cut loose when the match seemed in the balance. Then came a twist in the tale. Pant (58) was castled by Keemo Paul and it boiled down to five runs off the last over from left-arm spinner Fabian Allen. It became one off three when Allen, holding his nerve, delivered a dot ball and had Dhawan (92) caught in the deep off the fifth. With a single needed off the last ball, Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik scampered for a single. What a finish!
For large parts of the game, it seemed India would run away with an easy win till things got tight in the last over bowled by left-arm spinner Fabien Allen. The spinner had five runs to play with and Shikhar Dhawan (92) was well entrenched. The southpaw, who batted confidently till then, stroked a couple and a single off the first two deliveries before his partner Manish Pandey rotated the strike again with a run to tie the score.
Dhawan, though, failed to hit the winning run from the fourth delivery. Now, with one needed off the last two, the pressure built and Dhawan crumbled as he holed out to long on. The batsmen crossed and it all came down to Pandey. The 29-year-old, though, held his nerves and tapped Allen’s last ball gently towards mid-on. If Allen had not misfielded off his own bowling, a run-out was on the cards, but luckily for Pandey, he did and the Karnataka batsman completed the run to ensure the six-wicket win for India. The victory meant a clean sweep for Rohit Sharma’s boys in the T20 series.
Before the last-over drama, Dhawan and Rishabh Pant looked in control. While Dhawan took India close to the finish-line, Pant, who had scored only 79 runs in six T20Is till Sunday’s game, finally hit form by smashing his maiden half-century (58) in this format. The two southpaws shared a stand of 130 runs for the third wicket after Rohit and KL Rahul departed early.
Batting with authority, Dhawan and Pant handled the West Indies bowlers well on a slow pitch. The way Pant hit Pollard for a six towards mid-wicket with only a swing of his bottom-hand was a treat for the 21,000-odd crowd. Dhawan, on the other hand, took a more cautious approach.
The two batsmen’s good work overshadowed the efforts of the West Indies batsmen earlier in the match. Spearheaded by the young Nicholas Pooran, the Windies finally came to the party. With India already winning the series, the West Indies had nothing to lose and it enabled their batsmen to bat with freedom. They were also aided by the absence of pacer Jasprit Bumrah and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav - bowlers who tormented their batsmen relentlessly.
