As India thrashed West Indies in the series decider at Wankhede last night fans finally got to see the most awaited 400th International six from the bat of Rohit Sharma. Rohit, who is popularly known as “hitman” for his big-hitting abilities was just one big shot away from the mark when the series started at Hyderabad last Friday.
The wait that continued from Hyderabad to Thiruvananthapuram got a fitting end at Sharma’s home ground. Sharma achieved the mark by sending one-off the boundary line of the bowling of Sheldon Cotterell on the first delivery of third over. He then went on to hit 4 more as he thumped 71 of 34 balls before falling prey to Kesrick Williams leaving India 135/1 in the 12th over.
Apart from Rohit, K.L. Rahul, and Skipper Virat Kohli presented a display of magnificent shorts as India finished off at a massive 240/3 in their allotted 20 overs. While Rahul who was later adjudged Man of the Match fell nine short of a century Kohli was at its destructive best.
Kohli hit 7 sixes in his knock of 70* that came off just 29 balls. He finished the Indian innings with a six off the last ball of the 20th over bowled by Sheldon Cotterell. West Indies was under pressure right from the start and was 17/3 after 3.1 overs. The visitors finished 67 runs short of India’s total handing them a 2-1 series win.
Also Read: Google Trends For 2019 Are Here: Check What Made ‘To The Most Searched List’ In India
Records Tumbled
Records kept tumbling last night as India looked in no mood to give West Indies a breather. India’s total of 240 is their second-highest against West Indies in T20Is and their third-best overall. The highest remains the 260/5 vs Sri Lanka at Indore on December 22, 2017, and 244/4 vs West Indies at Lauderhill on August 27, 2016.
The match yesterday also saw for the fifth time, both the Indian openers – Rohit Sharma (71) and Lokesh Rahul (91) registering a 50-plus score in the same T20I. Skipper Kohli never misses an opportunity to tumble record books, and there was no difference this time around.
Kohli’s average of 183.00 while aggregating 183 in three innings, which includes two fifty-plus scores is the highest by a skipper in a bilateral series in T20Is. West Indies too had there share of records which they would like to forget as soon as possible.
Yesterday’s defeat was West Indies 61st in T20Is which puts them at joint highest defeats by a team in T20s alongside Sri Lanka. However, the Caribbeans lived up to there big-hitting abilities and punched Most sixes vs India in India with they coming in excess of 10 in all the three matches.
Also Read: Russia Banned From World Sports For 4 Years, To Miss Olympics
Now, all focus would shift to Chennai as the two sides head there to kick start the three-match ODI series. The 1st of the ODI would be played in three days time on 15th December.
