CHENNAI: There is no room for complacency in international cricket. Although the current West Indies side may not the same as the great ones of the past, one cannot take an international T20 fixture for granted. The Indian cricketers arrived in the city on Saturday evening as though they were going to play an exhibition match on Sunday.
They learnt the truth the hard way as they huffed and puffed to a six-wicket victory, with Manish Pandey scoring a single off the last ball. Set a target of 182, India made a disastrous start losing skipper Rohit Sharma cheaply. KL Rahul was done in by pace and edged Oshane Thomas behind the stumps. Both were soft dismissals and a clear indication of lack practice.
Shikhar Dhawan (92 off 62) and Rishabh Pant (58 off 38) played sensibly and helped India avoid embarrassment. While the former held fort, Pant did not curb natural instincts. The duo added 130 in 80 balls for the third wicket.
“I finally got a big score. I knew I had to stay till the end when we lost two wickets. Really happy with the way Rishabh and I played. I knew he was going after the bowlers and I had to keep one end safe. He hit some amazing sixes and then I joined the party. It doesn’t matter to me what people say. I just back myself and my batting,’’ said the 32-year-old Dhawan.
Rohit felt his players will learn from the close finish. “Great effort to cross the finish line. We spoke at the start of this game that we wanted to be ruthless. There were chances of us being complacent. As a team, there is always room for improvement. Overall in this series, we ticked a lot of boxes, especially in fielding,’’ opined the stand-in skipper.
Carlos Brathwaite said he was proud of the way his team played. “We saw a few balls grip. We didn’t switch quickly enough to the yorkers but when we did, we brought it down to the last over. We have a lot of young talent. We have to manage them. Once we do the right things and the management staff and the administrators plan right, we can get these guys in a position to not just challenge but win the upcoming World Cups.”
Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer answered the skipper’s call by going hammer and tong, exploiting field restrictions to the hilt. Later, Darren Bravo (43 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (53 not out) added 87 runs in 43 balls for the unfinished fourth wicket.
India’s bowling was not up the mark, perhaps the long Diwali break had made them rusty. Barring Yuzvendra Chahal, none were impressive. Krunal Pandya, who went wicketless, suffered the most, as Hope and Hetmyer scored sixes at will off him. Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded nine in his first over. Later, too, he failed to make an impact. Hope and Hetmyer chose the right balls to attack and raised 51 for the first wicket.
Khaleel Ahmed showed promise in the first three overs, but messed it up in the final one by conceding 23 runs. “He has improved a lot from the time I saw him first. In the last two years that he has been training at the foundation he has gained lot of confidence. We sent him to Australia last year under an exchange programme and he has benefitted from the exposure,’’ said M Senthilnathan, chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation.
ashok.v@newindianexpress.com
Brief scores: West Indies 183/3 in 20 ovs (Nicholas Pooran 53 n.o, Darren Bravo 43 n.o) lost to India 184/4 in 20 ovs (Shikhar Dhawan 92, Rishabh Pant 58).