Lewis 125* as West Indies power through to nine-wicket win
Evin Lewis put behind him the dismal ODI series to score 125 as he made mockery of India's target of 191
Evin Lewis put behind him the dismal ODI series to score 125 as he made mockery of India's target of 191
Scorer: Thilak Ram | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
And that is a wrap. West Indies stand in front of a sign that says "winners" with their nice and shiny trophy. With that image, I shall bug off. Thanks for feeding my narcissism.
"Very happy. Yesterday we asked for the batters to go out and experess themselves. I gave them the captain's incentive, whoever goes and gets a fifty gets half my match fee. We wanted to put smiles on the faces of the fans and that's what we come back to do," Carlos Brathwaite says after collecting the trophy. "We wanted to wrestle the game back against them. We've seen the IPL, we know how Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowls at the death and we wanted to make him bowl more in the first few overs and that's a box ticked. Then Evin just played magnificently. He just played on, played through so big kudos to him. It was a good score on the board, but we always knew we could get it. Kestick Williams has produced a fantastic performance, carries it on from Pakistan to Afghanistan and here. His figures might not reflect it, but he got Kohli out, the direct hit, and in the sixth over he had two new batsmen in and that certainly helped"
Evin Lewis is Man of the Match. "It was a good game. Quality bowlers, and once you get a hundred against a team like India, it's a good hundred/ Five games in a row, in the ODIs, I didn't do well. But I kept believing in my ability and today I came out trumps. Chris going after the bowling makes it easier for me to score, so I'm thankful to bat with him and I hope I can keep doing my best for the West Indies"
"Even in the first innings, we could have added 25-30 extra. We were on course for 230. And in the field as well, we dropped a few chances and if you don't grab them you don't deserve to win," Virat Kohli says, "If you give a good start up the order, one batsman has to bat through. I think Dinesh was good, but we needed someone to get 80-90 which a team needs in T20 cricket, I think. Then we didn't start well with the ball and didn't field well either. All these games are good feeders of how guys react to situations. West Indies have a good T20 team, they have carried on with the same team for a couple of years. And in experimental stage, we'd have up and downs. But we need to keep going. One game in the ODis we lost, we won three convincingly. T20s is anyone's game, and one game doesn't make a series according to me. Overall, we enjoyed the tour"
2.15 pm It is (finally) presentation time. And Big Merv Dillion is among the people at the dais
1.55 pm Now how bout that for a Super Sunday, Jamaica? You might have wanted a Chris Gayle special. But hope you weren't too disappointed. He's getting hugs, a few are whispering in his ear and he's grinning like the kid caught staring at a naughty picture. Now why would you be embarrassed by all this attention? You worked hard for it! The third player after Gayle and McCullum to get two T20I centuries. The only player with a score as massive as 125 in a chase - 125 out of 194! That's 65% of the runs. And 57% of those came in sixes. There were 12 of them! And so West Indies achieve their highest chase at home, nine balls and nine wickets to spare.
"Top top top knock by Evin. Extremely well done bro. #keepitgoing" tweets ODI and Test captain Jason Holder.
Rajat Raj: "I missed bumrah"
Debajyoti: "If West Indies start playing ODI cricket like a T20, they might end up scoring more than what they actually do on most occasions.." Problem is, 50 overs is too long to bat like this.
Karan: "Will sound to harsh but it's a fact that jaddu and ashwin are not good spinners on good track. It's not one off day,if it would be england or south africa they would be all over them but with players of good spin bowling they never were any good just pick up the stats.We need wrist spinners more, when pitch is not offering something u must have them."
Abhishek Gupta: "Hey Alagappan .... Don't u think India is making their strength into weakness by not choosing the best bowlers just in quest of some extra 10-15 runs down the order..If you have to choose 4-5 bowlers they should be the best ones available.. Similar mistake india did in CT final " This was a flat pitch. I'm not sure too man bowlers would have come away with honours. I think, in T20Is, they need to change the way their batsmen play. They need to look to hit a boundary each ball. Kohli and Dhawan began like that - they hit 13 boundaries in the first six overs - their second-highest ever - but they needed more muscle in the middle-order.
Ray: "Its quite ironic that India cannot produce big hitters even from IPL. I think the world is benefiting more from IPL in terms of nurturing and finding players than India "
Abhishek Gupta: "Hey Muthu.. I disagree with u .. Good bowlers should be able to bowl everywhere.. Just see Bhuvi's figures.. I think India needs to re-think their strategy. They have arguably the best bowling pace attack in limited overs and they need to have faith in rather going the traditional way of picking 2-3 spinners. In CT20 they should have picked Umesh Yadav in place of Jadeja (as jadeja was not their best 4h bowler and for allrounder they had Pandaya). Here they should have picked Yadav in place of Ashwin (as Jadeja is in team as a all rounder)... Understand that this won't be published but just wanted to put my point across of India's mindless bowling selections in limited overs and turning their strength into weakness. Hope u don't block me after this :) "
Ishan Jain: "I saw a lot of videos on Dhoni's greatest stumpings & sixes on his b'day a couple of days ago, only to witness him missing two stumpings and getting out fairly cheaply."
Andrew: "Lewis' innings should finally make India see the merits of going with some fresh blood for T20 at the very least. It is high time the thinktank realises that the ODI blueprint does not work and it is the big hitters that rule this game. With the right personnel, you can do with one swing of the bat what it would otherwise take three to four balls to achieve."
Highlights of the one-off T20I between West Indies and India
West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite and coach Stuart Law have expressed how they were happy to restrict India to under 200, as the 190 total was 20 runs short
Evin Lewis put behind him the dismal ODI series to score 125 as he made mockery of India's target of 191
The presence of players like Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree and Kieron Pollard makes the one-off T20I potentially the most evenly matched game of India's tour of the West Indies