West Indies outplayed India by 8 wickets in the series-decider on Sunday (August 13) to clinch the five-match T20I series 3-2. It was their first T20I series win over India since 2017, and a magnificent achievement for Rovman Powell & co. considering India is the top-ranked team in Men's T20Is.
Indian captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first despite winning the last two games quite easily while chasing. India went in with an unchanged side while West Indies replaced Odean Smith with Roston Chase and Obed McCoy with Alzarri Joseph.
India's decision backfired immediately as they lost their openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill in single figures, but Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma put on a 49-run stand to get the innings back on track, before Varma was dismissed for 27.
Thereafter Sanju Samson (13) and Hardik Pandya (14) couldn't do much even as Suryakumar Yadav batted superbly at his end to score 61 off 45 balls. With few lusty blows from the lower order India somehow managed to post 165/9 on the board which was close to the par score on the ground.
India needed early wickets to get in the game and got Kyle Mayers cheaply for 10, but West Indies surprised the visitors by promoting the hard-hitting Nicholas Pooran to number 3. Pooran and Brandon King went on to put 107 runs for the second wicket and all but sealed the win in favour of their team.
Pooran was dismissed for 47 by part-timer Tilak Varma, but King carried on to remain unbeaten on his career-best score of 85* while Shai Hope scored 22* to take West Indies to an 8-wicket win and a famous series win, their second successive in the format after defeating South Africa earlier.
Hardik Pandya suffered his first series defeat as captain, and it was something that a lot of experts had not seen coming into the series after India had comfortably won the Test and ODI series.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Hardik Pandya lamented the fact that he himself couldn't contribute with the bat as he wanted to in a crucial situation.
Pandya said, “If you see, we lost that period post ten overs. Since when I came, I wasn’t able to capitalize and I took my time and could not finish. (On decision to bat first). I believe that as a group we have to challenge ourselves. We try to get better. All these games are the games where we have to learn. We have spoken as a group that whenever we can take the hard way we will. In hindsight, one series here or there doesn’t matter but the commitment to the goal is important. We don't need to explain much. I know how the boys are within the group. We have enough time to figure it out,”
“Losing is good sometimes. It teaches you a lot of things. On the positive side, we have done a lot of learnings. The boys showed character. Credit to them. They kept coming and tried something new. It is part of the process. It is what I feel at that moment. If I see a situation, I generally prefer something that comes to mind. No rocket science, just my gut feel,” he added.
On next year's T20 World Cup which will be played in West Indies, Hardik said, “It’s a long way. We have the ODI World Cup coming up. You get to learn a lot. And special mention for all the boys. They showed great character. Winning and losing is a part of the process and we are going to make sure we learn from that,”
Pandya signed off commending the youngsters in his side like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar who made their debut in the series.
“They’ve got heart. That is something that’s very important in international cricket. Every youngster coming through has belief. That’s something I see very often now. Kudos to them, they came out and took responsibility. I can’t be happier as a captain.”
