Virat Kohli Lift His Team to claim 9th Consecutive Series Win
Captain Virat Kohli claimed his
second consecutive centenary to secure the series' victory in India in the third match, as India spoiled Chris Gayle's possible ODI swan song at the Port
of Spain on August 14. In what appeared to be his last ODI for the West Indies.
Gayle made his way to a 72-runs, leading the hosts to a competitive 240 for
seven in the rainy match after they chose to bat.
Shortly after his dismissal, the
Indian players ran to Gayle and shook his hand. Kohli even made a typical Chris
Gayle squad before the burly Indian left.
Chris Gayle, in his inimitable
style, put his helmet on top of his bat handle and lifted it in the air as he
walked away. Near the border ropes, he tossed his helmet into the air just to
retrieve it.
Gestures suggest Chris Gayle has
played his latest ODI.
India set a revised rigid target
of 255-runs with the Duckworth-Lewis method, but Kohli's insatiable appetite
for racing and securing young Shreyas Iyer's captain meant that it ultimately
turned out to be a comfortable six-way victory wicket that resulted in a 2-0
series win.
Iyer's 65-stroke counter-attack
shot changed the game when he took the pressure off his captain.
It was India's ninth consecutive
ODI series win, at home and away, over the West Indies.
Coming out batting when India had
lost the first Rohit Sharma match (10), Kohli lifted his 43rd ODI hundred and
in the process crossed the phenomenal mark of 20,000 runs in international
cricket.
Kohli remained undefeated in 114
and completed the victory with consecutive boundaries against Carlos
Brathwaite.
His dominant stroke was 99 balls
with 14 fours and the Indian captain now averages 60.31 in ODI. Kohli had
scored 120 in the second ODI.
After Shikhar Dhawan (36)
squandered a start, the drummer Rishabh Pant proved that he is not learning
from his mistakes, as he was again guilty of playing a reckless shot, obtaining
a first-ball duck.
In contrast, Iyer played
intelligently and maturely to lift a crucial 120-stroke position with Kohli for
the fourth wicket, bringing the team close to the target. His hit was 41 balls with five
sixes and three limits.
When he was fired, India needed
43 runs over 40 balls, but Kedar Jadhav (19 was not) made sure there was no
turn in the story. He lifted an undefeated 44-stroke place for the sixth
wicket.
Previously, the West Indies
reached a healthy level of 158 for two out of 22 overs when rain forced a
second interruption and when competition resumed it was reduced to 35
over-a-side.
Shai Hope (24) and Shimron
Hetmyer (25) resumed entries but did not last long with Mohammed Shami firing
the latter and Ravindra Jadeja cleaning the first.
Nicholas Pooran played a
whirlwind of 16 balls and 30 runs to take the hosts beyond the 200-runs mark.
The left-hander intelligently handled the Indian spinners, throwing Jadeja and
Yuzvendra Chahal for six huge ones.
Shami attacked again by sending
back to Pooran, who sent a full delivery directly to Manish Pandey.
Gayle came out with a clear plan
to attack Indian bowlers, taking advantage of what seemed like his last
international performance.
Whether Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami
or Khaleel Ahmed (3/68), no Indian country was spared Gayle beating them for
six years with remarkable ease.
Spinner Chahal was the only
bowler to demand some respect from the West Indies marauder.
The left-handed opener, the
self-proclaimed boss of the Universe, punished Indian bowlers with five sixes
and eight shots to the fence in his entertaining coup.
