India scripted a 2-1 series victory against West Indies in the third ODI match at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, thanks to Mukesh Kumar’s early breakthrough and Shardul Thakur’s excellent bowling. Mukesh took three wickets, conceding 30 runs, while Thakur claimed 4/37. Kuldeep Yadav also contributed with two wickets, while Jaydev Unadkat took one wicket.
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Chasing a daunting total of 352, West Indies faced early setbacks when Mukesh Kumar dismissed Brandon King for a duck in the first over. Mukesh struck again in his second spell, removing Kyle Mayers for 4. Shai Hope, West Indies’ captain, also fell to Mukesh’s impressive swing, caught by Shubman Gill at slip, leaving West Indies struggling at 17/3 after 7 overs.
Then, Unadkat joined the party in the 11th over, dismissing Keacy Carty for 6 at the first slip. Soon after, Shardul Thakur dismissed Shimron Hetmyer (4) and Romario Shepherd (8) in the 12th and 14th overs, respectively.
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Kuldeep Yadav came into the attack in the 19th over and started off with a maiden over. He claimed the wickets of Alick Athanaze (32) and Yannic Cariah with perfectly-executed deliveries to put India in complete control.
Although Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph built a 50-run partnership for the 9th wicket, Thakur dismissed Joseph for 26, and Jayden Seales fell to him as well, wrapping up West Indies’ innings at 152 in 35.3 overs. As a result, India ended up with a massive 200-run victory while winning the ODI series 2-1.
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Earlier, India posted an impressive total of 351/5, largely due to an outstanding opening partnership of 143 runs between Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill. Kishan scored 77 runs, Gill contributed 85, and Sanju Samson added a quickfire 51 runs. Stand-in captain Hardik Pandya played a fiery unbeaten knock of 70 runs, supported by Ravindra Jadeja.
The Indian openers started aggressively, with Gill hitting boundaries off Alzarri Joseph’s bowling. Kishan reached his half-century in 43 balls, and Gill followed suit, bringing up his fifty in 51 balls. The partnership was broken when Cariah dismissed Kishan in the 20th over, but Samson continued the onslaught, hitting three sixes in 13 balls and reaching his maiden ODI half-century in 39 balls.
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Samson’s innings came to an end after scoring 51 runs off 41 balls, but Pandya took charge, smashing the West Indies bowlers all over the ground. He achieved his half-century in 45 balls and ended the innings in style, adding 18 runs in the last over to help India reach an imposing total of 351/5 in 50 overs.
Milestones achieved
The result marked India’s 13th consecutive ODI series win against the West Indies. The last time India lost an ODI series defeat to the Caribbean side was 17 years ago in 2006. Back then, they lost the series 4-1 to the Windies led by the legendary Brian Lara.
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Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan scored his third consecutive half-century in the series, placing him in an exclusive group of only six Indian players who have scored a half-century in all matches of a bilateral three-game ODI series. The previous players to achieve this feat are Kris Srikkanth (1982), Dilip Vengsarkar (1985), Mohammad Azharuddin (1993), MS Dhoni (2019), and Shreyas Iyer (2020).
The 25-year-old left-handed batter has had an impressive start to his international career in the past two years. He has scored 617 runs in 17 ODIs since his debut against Sri Lanka in July 2021. His record-breaking 210 against Bangladesh at the end of the previous year remains the standout performance of his career. Kishan is also a strong contender to earn a spot in India’s squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup