Indian continued with their victorious march in the third match of the T20 series to complete a 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies, winning the final match of the series by a margin of 17 runs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday night. After setting a target of 185 against the Caribbean side, India restricted them to a total of 167/9 with Nicolas Pooran once again coming good for the visitors.
Suryakumar Yadav was the biggest performer for India with the bat as he scored 65 from only 31 balls whereas all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer smacked a quickfire 35 not out from 19 balls to power India to a strong total of 184/5 from their 20 overs. The opening batsman Ishan Kishan and No 3 batsman Shreyas Iyer both contributed heavily, scoring 34 and 25 respectively for India who were asked to bat first after the West Indies won the toss.
India made plenty of changes to their batting line-up as well since their regular opener and captain Rohit Sharma came at No 4 in the absence of middle order batsman and former captain Virat Kohli, who was rested from this contest along with explosive wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant. The opening pair was a new one for India with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kishan in the third match.
The pair of Suryakumar and Venkatesh Iyer powered India to a total in excess of 180 with their superb 91-run stand for the fifth wicket, which came from only 37 balls. Suryakumar was in his full flow, smacking 7 sixes and just one boundary to make 65 from 31 balls whereas Venkatesh Iyer hammered 4 boundaries and 2 sixes to make 35 not out from only 19 balls.
In their reply, there was no spirited fightback from the West Indies batsmen collectively, like they had put up in the second match of the series. Their openers Kyle Mayers and Shai Hope fell for 6 and 8 respectively but Pooran continued breaking up big runs for the Caribbean side, scoring 61 from 47 balls with the help of 8 boundaries and a six. However, he could not find enough support from the other end with Rovman Powell scoring 25 and the rest of the team not putting up anything significant.
Romario Shepherd did well to score 29 from 21 balls with the help of 3 sixes and a four to keep West Indies afloat right till the end, but India’s total proved just too many for them to make. For the home team, Harshal Patel produced a terrific spell of 4-0-22-3 whereas the likes of Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Venkatesh Iyer all claimed two wickets each.
While the West Indies team will now return home, the Indian side will travel to Lucknow where they will face Sri Lanka in the first T20I of those three match series to be played on Thursday, February 24. India and Sri Lanka will play two more T20 internationals at Dharamsala before they face-off in a two match Test series to be played at Mohali and Bengaluru.