India complete West Indies whitewash with win in final T20I

GUYANA: Fine half centuries by captain Virat Kohli and wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and outstanding bowling by Deepak Chahar, who took 3 wickets while conceding only 4 runs in his three overs, helped India beat West Indies by seven wickets in the final fixture of the three-match T20 International series at the Guyana National Stadium on Tuesday and blank the hosts 3-0 in the three-match competition.

In reply to the West Indies total of 146/6 in 20 overs, India reached 150/3 wickets, winning with 5 balls to spare.

While the Indian skipper scored 59 off 45 balls with the help of 6 fours, he was well supported by Rishabh Pant, who came in four down at the fall of KL Rahul’s wicket. The wicket-keeper batsman, who has taken Mahender Singh Dhoni’s place in the team, remained not out on 65 (42), which he notched up with the help of four hits to the boundary and four over it.

Earlier, outstanding bowling by Deepak Chahar limited West Indies to 146 for six bating first.

His had figures of three for four off three overs ater the Caribbean side were put in following a delayed start by almost an hour because of early morning rain.

Kieron Pollard top scored with 58 and had a 66-run partnership with Nicholas Pooran (17) for the fourth wicket ater they had slipped to 14 for three in just the fourth over.

Rovman Powell then contributed a quick-fire 32 off 20 deliveries to give the innings some late impetus. Fast bowler Saini broke the productive partnership between Pollard and Pooran when he had the junior partner caught behind.

He then bowled Pollard to end the veteran allrounder’s innings which spanned only 45 deliveries and was highlighted by six sixes and one four.

Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar claimed the wicket of Carlos Brathwaite, the West Indies captain miscuing an attempted pull to be comfortably taken at long-on.