
Following the two-wicket loss in Guyana on Sunday, India now trails the West Indies 0-2 in the five-match T20I series.
The hosts needed to score 153 runs to win, but they did so with just two wickets left in the game after 18.5 overs. The best scorer for India was Tilak Varma (51 runs), while the top scorer for the West Indies was the in-form Nicholas Pooran (67 runs; 40b; 6×4, 4×6).
Nevertheless, India had opportunities to regain control, particularly after spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s 16th over saw the loss of three wickets. Chahal was getting ready to bat again and bowl the 18th over, as the hosts still required 21 runs to win. Arshdeep Singh, a pacer, was unexpectedly given the ball, and he ended up scoring nine runs in the process.
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Abhinav Mukund, a JioCinema specialist, expressed astonishment that Chahal did not bowl the 18th over, saying: “Ten times out of ten you would have gone with Chahal and tried to close out the game there, especially with Alzarri Joseph in there. I understand that the left-hander is still there, but you’ve got Hetmyer out in the previous over bowling a full one and you have the bigger boundary to deal with.”
“I was a bit baffled by the decision to go back to Arshdeep because he’s your strike bowler, your lead bowler. If you wanted to bowl him, you could bowl him in the 19th over, left Mukesh the last over, or even brought Arshdeep for the final over depending on the number of runs required.”
Robbin Uthappa, said: “I have one expression – one Gen-Z expression for this moment – ‘pooof’ and not in a nice way. I am just mind-blown by how when a guy gets you three wickets in an over (Chahal took two and one was a run-out) essentially you don’t bring him back for another one and kind of close the game completely.”
“The likes of Alzarri Joseph are not going to contend with the experience and class of a Yuzi Chahal. He knows how to bowl to these lower-order batsmen, he know how to get them out. And Akeal Hosein is not gonna take him on, not at that point with three overs to go. He would have backed himself with two overs to go perhaps, not three overs to go. So, you knew there was an error in judgement there.”
-IANS