For once on this tour, the bowlers were not simply there to be hit. India defended 223 to beat West Indies by 14 runs in the third T20I in Indore and take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, the first time any side on this tour won batting first.
Abhishek Sharma’s 30-ball 69, and his whirlwind 108-run stand with Ishan Kishan off just 40 deliveries, helped put up a strong total before a disciplined bowling effort led by Arshdeep Singh’s 3 for 44 held West Indies to 209/7.
Everything about the evening pointed towards another successful chase. The chasing side had won all three ODIs and both T20Is so far, with targets of 406 and 250 among them, and the Holkar Stadium’s square boundaries measured just 63 metres. “We all know what I’m going to do,” WI captain Shai Hope quipped at the toss, choosing to bowl again, but the dew that had soaked Ranchi never really arrived in Indore.
Put in to bat once again, it was a quiet start by India, who went boundary-less off the bat for the first two overs. Sanju Samson fell for 3, mistiming a 150kph full ball from Shamar Joseph to mid-wicket, before Hope took Joseph off and India pounced on everyone from then on. Abhishek, who had been watchful against Roston Chase’s first over, took him for a four and two sixes in the third while Kishan greeted Keemo Paul with three fours.
By the time Joseph returned, India had all the momentum on their side. Abhishek reached an 18-ball fifty in a 21-run sixth over, and India finished the Powerplay at 87/1. The 108 that Abhishek and Kishan added for the second wicket came at 16.2 an over, the fastest century stand India have ever put together in T20Is.
Once again, it was Chase who dragged West Indies back. In the ninth over, a ball after being hit for six, he had the big-hitting Kishan stumped with a flatter, wider one. Three balls later in the same over, Shreyas Iyer missed a slog and was lbw for 1. Abhishek followed in the next over, top-edging a pull straight up for Shamar Springer to take a return catch. And just like that, India had lost three wickets for nine runs in ten balls. They slipped to 135/5 when Naman Dhir, a ball after crashing Gudakesh Motie onto the top-tier hoarding, holed out to long-off.
From there, India’s innings was a series of starts. Nitish timed the ball beautifully for his 21 before glancing a harmless ball down leg into Hope’s gloves. Then came the strangest moment of the night, when Tilak Varma and Axar Patel assumed that the ball had reached the boundary and met mid-pitch to punch gloves, only for Kamil Pooran to fire the ball back and run Tilak out for 28. India lost another wicket to a run out when Axar was left stranded two overs later. Prince Yadav’s three fours in the final over, one of them a scoop over Hope’s head, got them to 223.
During the innings break, Abhishek reckoned that hitting straight was not easy on this surface, and the trick was to bowl lengths the batters had to wait for. India’s bowlers followed that to the letter. They opened with six overs of pace, and Mayank Yadav set the tone with a two-run first over. Arshdeep found some movement back into the right-handers and delivered the big breakthrough by breaching Hope’s defences.
Shimron Hetmyer, dropped on 5 by Abhishek at short third man, took Arshdeep for 19 in the fourth over and raced to 43 off 26 before Naman bowled him right after being struck for a six.
West Indies were 54/1 after the Powerplay, a long way behind India’s 87/1, and Pooran too was struggling to time the ball at the other end. The pressure told on Rovman Powell, who came down the track to Axar and sliced a catch to sweeper cover. Pooran finally found his range with three sixes off Naman in the 11th over, only to try for a fourth and pick out Arshdeep in the deep for 42.
That left Sherfane Rutherford, who had smashed Indian bowlers all around the park in Ranchi, with too much to do. He and Quentin Sampson added 46 but the required rate kept climbing.
Nitish removed Sampson, and with 65 needed off 24, Arshdeep returned and settled the game in one over with the wickets of Paul and Rutherford. Axar Patel was hit for three sixes in the final over by Springer but with 37 needed off six balls, the effort was too little in the end.
Brief scores: India 223 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 69, Ishan Kishan 37; Roston Chase 2-38, Shamar Springer 2-50, Shamar Joseph 2-54) beat West Indies 209/7 in 20 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 43, Kamil Pooran 42, Shamar Springer 35*; Arshdeep Singh 3-44, Naman Dhir 2-39) by 14 runs.
