Agency :
Collectively, West Indies were a shambles, their batting in particular. Yet again, their top order was in give-away mode, playing with the gaiety of recreational cricket. 169 all out, chasing 266 for victory, completed a 3-0 ODI series sweep for India. Under lights at Motera, the hosts barely broke a sweat. Commentating for the host broadcaster, Ian Bishop called for setting up a High-Performance Centre in the Caribbean.
The West Indies bowling was good and some individual gains were their only takeaway from this defeat. Alzarri Joseph and Odean Smith enhanced their reputations ahead of the Indian Premier League auction. Joseph went unsold last year. In all likelihood, it would be different this time. Smith (36, 18 balls) added his batting pyrotechnics to his bowling, laying into Kuldeep Yadav and probably upsetting the chinaman bowler’s auction prospects a bit. But in the context of the third ODI, which India won by 96 runs, it was just delaying the inevitable.
The hosts, too, suffered a top-order collapse, but that was mostly down to the excellent Joseph (2/54), bending his back on a bouncy and a little two-paced pitch. Virat Kohli fell prey to a soft dismissal, caught down the leg-side, something that happens during a lean patch. Kohli is having an elongated one, and he had a rueful smile after getting out for a duck.
Rohit Sharma, who had started off with a rasping square cut against Kemar Roach off the first ball of the match, was Joseph’s first scalp. The India captain went for a cover drive without moving his feet and inside-edged a fullish delivery on to the stumps. Kohli’s wicket a couple of balls later gave Joseph a double-wicket maiden. It was the second time in the series that he dismissed Sharma and Kohli in the same over.
The returning Shikhar Dhawan departed in Smith’s first over, failing to handle the extra bounce and India were 42/3 in the 10th over. KL Rahul sat out of this game owing to a niggle and Shreyas Iyer came at No. 4 after recovering from Covid. He had Rishabh Pant for company to resurrect India’s innings. Both scored half-centuries, in contrasting styles, and added 110 runs for the fourth wicket. If Pant’s knock was silken, Iyer’s was a tad laboured. But the latter gradually grew into the game. Pant’s batting in a way defines the Orwellian ‘doublethink’, which simultaneously accepts responsibility and irresponsibility. He is capable of sublime as well as messy stuff. Nobody knows which Pant would turn up. On Friday, it was the former, with all his grace and wide range of shots. The left-hander gave himself time, didn’t err in shot selection and made batting look easy. He was the only batsman who looked comfortable right from the beginning.
