West Indies team continued their impressive run under Kieron Pollard and stunned the hosts with the 8-wicket win. It was a great day for the West Indies team, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope and of course for captain Pollard. Winning a T20 match is fine but winning an ODI match against India in India must be a great feeling for the West Indies players and the fans. Let us look at the post-match 5 talking points or highlights from India vs West Indies 1st ODI.
1. Team combination:
Virat Kohli’s team selections always polarize opinions, more so in white-ball cricket and it was no different today. Kuldeep was picked ahead of Chahal and India went with debutant Shivam Dube as the 4th and Kedar Jadhav as the 5th bowler rather than going with a specialist one.
India’s team composition has totally changed since that semifinal exit in the 2019 World Cup, or more precisely after that England game in the group stage of the World Cup.
The earlier focus was more on wicket-taking bowlers now there is more emphasis on batting depth. Last year when West Indies toured India, Kuldeep Yadav was batting at no.8 and today he was slotted at no.11 That tells you how much India has moved on after the WC semifinal exit.
2. Partnership between the two No.4s:
In the first few overs, there were enough indications that the pitch is not ideal for strokeplay. KL Rahul was deceived by a slower one and Kohli dragging the ball into stumps that left the Chepauk crowd absolutely stunned.
There was a small recovery between Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer but just when things were settling down for India, a soft dismissal of Rohit left India in big trouble. A situation that gives you a perfect opportunity to give a proper look at the middle order performance.
Both Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant responded superbly. Iyer was quite circumspect by his standards and Pant looked very calculative as well. They provided a century stand between them with a good mixture of strike rotation and boundaries. In the end, both of them threw away the chance of converting the 70 runs to 3 figure mark. But this partnership must have given some relief to the Indian team management.
3. An umpiring controversy:
A mandatory umpiring controversy has become a norm these days. In 48th over of the innings, Jadeja blocked a full delivery towards silly mid-off and scampered through for a quick single.
Roston Chase picked the ball and a direct hit by him left Jadeja short at non-striker end.
Though none of the West Indies players noticed that. Roston Chase asked half-heartedly but umpire Shaun George denied to go for the third umpire.
In the meantime TV replay was shown and somebody from support staff would have passed the information to Pollard & Co. who then insisted on the field umpire to check with the third umpire.
And eventually, the right decision was made but the late process left Virat Kohli fuming.
4. Shimron Hetmyer show:
In last year’s tour to India, he showed his power game, especially against spinners. It looked like as if he continued from there only.
Mind you it wasn’t an easy surface for strokeplay but the precision of his footwork made spinners’ life very difficult.
Against pacers, he started bit shakily but once he got going, the ball kept finding 2nd and 3rd tiers of the stands.
On the other side, Shai Hope was playing the anchor role and Hetmyer kept the required run rate within range by getting boundaries regularly.
It was a perfect masterclass on how to chase down the target in India. Closing to a hundred, he struggled with cramps but he didn’t give up. In his innings of 139 runs from 106 balls, 86 runs came off in boundaries which included 7 huge sixes.
5. Misfields, Dropped catch and Where are wicket-takers?
In the absence of Bumrah, India already lacked experience in the pace bowling department. And with Jadeja and Shivam Dube as 4th and 5th bowlers, India’s wicket-taking options were restricted.
And dropped catch, missed run-out opportunity made India’s life really difficult. Hetymer would have gone back in 14th over if Kohli’s throw was anywhere close to stumps.
India had another chance to dismiss Hetmyer when Shreyas Iyer dropped a dolly at long-on. By the time he rectified his mistake, it was too late. Shai Hope’s anchored innings of 102*(151) took West Indies to a win which not many had expected at the start.
Alright, so those were the post-match 5 main talking points from India vs West Indies 2019 1st ODI match. We hope you agree with the same. What other things from the match should be highlighted? Answer in the comments section below.
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