Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant helped India beat West Indies by six wickets in the third and final T20I in a tense last ball finish at the Chepauk on Sunday. With this victory, the men in blue also complete a 3-0 whitewash in the T20 series. For his brilliant knock of 92, Shikhar Dhawan was awarded the man of the match.
Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant helped India beat West Indies by six wickets in the third and final T20I in a tense last ball finish at the Chepauk on Sunday. With this victory, the men in blue also complete a 3-0 whitewash in the T20 series. For his brilliant knock of 92, Shikhar Dhawan was awarded the man of the match.
In a dazzling innings of 62 balls, Dhawan hit 10 fours and two sixes. Together, with Rishab Pant (58), the left-handed opener forged a 130-run partnership for the third wicket. However, their dismissals led to a nail-biting finish as India needed one run off the last delivery bowled by Fabian Allen to secure the victory. However, Manish Pandey hit the winning runs as Allen misfielded the former’s shot.
Earlier, Windies won the toss and opted to bat first. Openers Shimron Hetmyer (26) and Shai Hope (24) got the visitors off to a brisk start. But Yuzvendra Chahal proved to be Rohit Sharma’s trump card as he dismissed both of them to put the brakes on the scoring rate. However, Darren Bravo and Nicholas Pooran batted responsibly and stitched a meaningful partnership which took West Indies to a competitive total of 180.
Chasing the target of 182 to win, Dhawan and Rishab came together at 45 for 2 after India had lost skipper Rohit Sharma (4) and K L Rahul (17). The Delhi duo put up a splendid show, treating the spectators at the MA Chidambaram stadium to some spectacular shots before India got home in the last ball of the match.