WI vs IND | Player Ratings - Virat-Rishabh “pantemonium” leads India surge to 3-0 series win after Deepak Chahar magic
Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant played two composed innings in the run chase to help India beat the Windies by seven wickets in the third T20I to seal the series 3-0. Earlier in the day, Deepak Chahar put up a sublime performance by picking three wickets for 4 runs restricting the hosts to 146 runs.
Shikhar Dhawan (1/10): This is getting out of hand. Truly. Shikhar Dhawan doesn’t deserve a place in the side and I can’t stress this enough. While blooding youngsters should be the order of the day, Dhawan pulled a delivery straight into the pocket of short fine, clearly knowing that Windies had packed the behind the square on the on-side. If this wasn’t lack of intent, then I don’t know what is.
KL Rahul (5/10): It is foolish to comment on Rahul’s T20 credentials - it is great anyway - but Rahul was nowhere close to his best on his 18-ball stay on the crease. That stay helped him score 20 runs but he surely could have lasted long on the crease to ensure that Dhawan’s loss wouldn’t much.Â
Virat Kohli (7/10): Before talking about his batting, Virat Kohli’s captaincy needs a detailed mention but I will go crisp. To put it a matter of fact, Deepak Chahar didn’t finish his quota of overs despite conceding runs at 1.33 in the first three overs. The discussion can go on until the cows come home but the Indian skipper made up for it with a solid half-century.
Rishabh Pant (9/10): He can frustrate you but he can play innings like these on a regular basis too. This is why he is so highly rated in Indian cricket and he showed that side of him with a fluent and composed 42-ball 65. In a welcome change, he didn’t throw away his wicket towards the end and remained not out to help India seal 3-0 series win.Â
Manish Pandey (6/10): Pandey was lucky to be finding a spot in the XI ahead of Shreyas Iyer and while he had a chance to make a case for himself, unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to bat long. Iyer is definite to get a chance to play in the ODI series and Pandey was unlucky in that way.
Krunal Pandya (6/10): “A genuine all-rounder and an excellent product of the IPL” - Ian Bishop was marveling the irresistible genius of Krunal Pandya on air when Kieron Pollard hit the Indian for an 86m six. This basically summarized his day as he bowled one bad ball too many after keeping a tight line on a regular basis. Kieron Pollard feasted on it to give his bowling figure a torrid look.
Washington Sundar (6.5/10): Was it Ravichandran Ashwin bowling in the name of Washington Sundar? The same amount of spin, keeping the ball behind his hand to hide the seam and the similar top-arm action made Sundar a bowler to watch out for after his performance today. His inability to flat the ball down after seeing the batsmen standing close to the stumps was a bit of a concern but he will learn that eventually.
Rahul Chahar (6/10): A leg-spinner is bound to have a bad day somewhere if he goes for wickets and Rahul Chahar’s debut was marred with that search for a wicket. Carlos Brathwaite’s terrible shot election helped him secure his first international cricket, but only at the cost of an ER of 9.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7.5/10): Unlike Lauderhill, Guyana had some swing available for the pacers and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the benefit of the same upfront. His first three overs only cost 10 runs but Saini’s failure added extra pressure on Bhuvneshwar who was later forced to bowl more full balls, but still ended up with under five RPO.
Deepak Chahar(9/10): It was the kind of bowling that one would have come to expect from the senior Chahar in recent years, and especially after his IPL exploits in the powerplay overs for Chennai Super Kings, and Virat Kohli used him in no different way. A CTRL C, CTRL V of what he did in the IPL helped Deepak have an idea of the slowness of the pitch and his first three overs yielded as many as three wickets. Could he have asked for a better redemption after English players went bonkers against him last year?
Navdeep Saini(6.5/10): If wickets are the best arbiter in T20s, it is hard to question Navdeep Saini’s bowling performance. However, in reality, the best performance in the T20s are those which combines wicket-taking prowess with economical bowling displays. Navdeep today operated somewhere in the middle as even though he had two wickets to his name, he had conceded 34 runs to contribute to Pollard’s surge.
