Dhawan, Pant help India snatch last ball victory, sweep series
Chennai, November 11:
It was a day of south paws atChepauk cricket stadium as India cantered to a six wicket victory over Champions West Indies in the third and final T-20 international match here on a enthusiastic Sunday night and won the series 3-0.
Chasing the visitors stiff target of 181 for three, the home team, despite losing skipper Rohit sharma and K L Rahul,early in the innings, recovered through half centuriesby Shikar Dhawan and the promising Rishab Pant to seal a comprehhensive 3-0 victory, off the last ballafter scampering the victory run. Dhawan, who toyed with the mediocre bowling losthis wicket on the penultimate ball of the innings, afterscoring 92 off 62 balls with 10 fours and two sixers. His left hand handed partner Rishab Pant, proved his mettle with an enterprising knock that contained 38-ball 58 with five fours and three sixers.
This was Pant’s first T-20 fifty.
Both Dhawan and Pant added 120 runs in 13 overs, thatcemen+ted the chase, despite the wickets of Rishab,that helped India sealed it comfortably off the last ball of the innings. Earlier, The chase was not bright initially, but Shikar Dhawanand Pant lit up the proceedings with a 130 run standin 13 overs to steer the home team to a level of perfection,which was consolidated by the other batsmen.
Pant, who was very aggressive, hit 58 in 38 balls, with five fours and three sixers, and dominated the partnership,with Dhawan, virtually playing a second fiddle, milkingruns and picking up boundaries at regular intervals.
With the dew factor not having any impact, Dhawan andin the comp0any of Manish Pandey completed the formalitiescomplete a comprehsensive win, despite match ending ofthe last ball. Following is the scoreboard :India :Shikhar Dhawan c Pollar B llen 92 Rohit Sharma a Braithwate b Keemo Paul 4K L Rahul c Ramdin b Thomas 17 (10 b, 4×4)Rishab Pant b Paul 58 Manish Pandey (nout ) 4 D Karthick (not out) 0 Extras : (lb 1, nb 2, w 4) 7Total : 182 for 3 in 20 overs Fall of wickets : 1-13, 2-45, 3-94 Bowling :West Indies :Bowling :K Pierre 2-0-13-0 O Thomas 4-0-43-1 KMA Paul 4-0-32-2 CR Brathwaite 4-0-41-0 .