India Vs Windies 2019/20: Third ODI - India Finish 2019 With A Series Victory 1
Image Credit: Twitter

By winning the third and final ODI of the home series against Windies at Cuttack on Sunday (22nd December) night, India secured their 10th successive ODI series victory against the Caribbean side.

After the Indian captain Virat Kohli sent the visiting side to bat first, Windies managed to score 315/5 in the first innings. In reply, India reached the target in 48.4 overs after losing six wickets.

Indian top-order played massive roles, before Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur successfully finished the game

Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul once again secured a good start with another century partnership. While Rohit scored 63 runs, Rahul played a knock of 77 runs. The openers had the 122 runs partnership. But once that partnership was broken, India were losing their wickets at regular intervals.

India, Windies
KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma (Image Credit: Twitter)

Shreyas Iyer (7), wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (7) and Kedar Jadhav (9) all failed to reach the double-digit scores in that innings. However, skipper Virat Kohli showcased an outstanding batting performance that helped the team to remain in the game.

When the hosts were batting on 228/5, Kohli had a crucial sixth-wicket partnership with Ravindra Jadeja that stretched for 58 runs. While Kohli was dismissed on 85 runs off 81 balls (9 fours), India still needed 30 runs off 23 balls.

Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja (Image Credit: Twitter)

As Jadeja played the strong part till the end, Shardul Thakur played a great furious cameo knock that helped the hosts to win the match. At the end of the match, Jadeja was batting on 39 runs (31 balls) while Thakur was remained not out on 17 runs off just six balls (2 fours and only six).

Shradul Thakur (Image Credit: Twitter)

Among the Caribbean bowlers, Keemo Paul (3/59) was the only bowler to pick up more than one wicket in that innings.

Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard destroyed the Indian bowlers in the death overs

Windies openers Evin Lewis and Shai Hope provided a good start as they put the 57 runs partnership for the opening wicket. The Caribbean top-order batsmen got good starts but failed to carry on to the big scores. Lewis scored 21 runs while the wicketkeeper-batsman Hope scored 42 runs. The next two batsmen Roston Chase (38) and Shimron Hetmyer (37) were also dismissed before reaching the 40-run mark.

Nicholas Pooran and captain Kieron Pollard handled the middle-order situation very well and once they were set in the crease, they fired up against the Indian bowlers. In the death overs, the Indian bowlers failed to restrict them. For the fifth wicket, Pooran-Pollard put the 135 runs partnership.

Kieron Pollard (Image Credit: Twitter)

While Pooran scored 89 runs off 64 balls (10 fours and 3 sixes), Pollard was not out on 74 runs off just 51 balls (3 fours and 7 sixes). In the last 10 overs of that innings, Windies managed to score 118/1.

Nicholas Pooran (Image Credit: Twitter)

The ODI debutant Indian pacer Navdeep Saini was the best bowler in the first innings as he finished with the bowling figures of 10-0-58-2.

 

While Windies won the first ODI of this series by eight wickets at Chennai, India beat the visitors by 107 runs in the next ODI at Visakhapatnam. As the Cuttack ODI was the series-decider, India’s four-wicket victory helped them to win the series by the 2-1 margin.

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