India vs West Indies 2023: Suryakumar Yadav takes India to a victory in the 3rd T20I

West Indian captain Rovman Powell won the toss and opted to bat first, thinking the pitch would get slower and slower as the match progressed. The Windies openers Brandon King and Kyle Mayers provided a good start for the side, adding 55 runs in just 7.3 overs. Axar Patel (4-0-24-1), who didn’t bowl a single ball in the second T20I, bowled all four overs inside the drinks break and also got the first breakthrough for India as he dismissed Mayers (25 off 20) in the 8th over. The visitors went with spinners since the second over and kept the scoring rate in check after the Powerplay. 

Johnson Charles (12 off 14) struggled during his stay at the crease and was playing and missing plenty of slog sweeps before missing one on his pads dead in front of the stumps. Nicholas Pooran came in at his usual number 4 position and looked threatening yet again, getting a flying start to his innings. But the comeback man Kuldeep Yadav changed the tide with the wickets of Nicky P (20 off 12) and well-set King (42 off 42) in the 15th over and eventually finished his day with figures of 4-0-28-3. Skipper Powell batted brilliantly and took the responsibility to finish the innings and scored an excellent knock of 40* from just 19 balls, helping West Indies to post the highest first-innings total in the series so far. Shimron Hetmyer (9 off 8), the local lad, failed again and was taken care of by Mukesh Kumar, who bowled his first over in the 18th over.

Read More: ICC ODI World Cup 2023 Schedule

Chasing 160 to win, India didn’t get off to a great start as they lost both of their openers inside the fifth over. Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had a dream start to his international career, got out early. Shubman Gill looked out of touch yet again in the series and was dismissed by Alzarri Joseph. Before getting out, Gill saw a vibrant Suryakumar Yadav for a while, and the latter continued his show on and on. SKY and Tilak Varma added 87 runs for the third wicket and took the game away from the hosts. Surya smashed 10 fours and 4 sixes in his knock of 83 off 44 balls and was on fire with the series on the line. He carved each and every stroke and was a thorn in the way of West Indies. Tilak was left stranded at 49 off 37 balls when Pandya (20 off 15) decided to take the aerial route banging a finishing punch at Powell and West Indies. This duo added an unbeaten 43 runs for the fourth wicket and wrapped up the West Indies leg of the tour with a seven-wicket win inside the 18th over.

Post-match comments:

Hardik Pandya: Very important (to win). We spoke as a group that these three games will be exciting. Two losses or two wins does not change the long term plans. We have to show we are ready when it comes to such (must-win) games. Nicky (Pooran) didn’t come out to bat and that allowed us to keep our pacers back, also allowed Axar to bowl his four overs. If Nicky wants to hit, let him hit me and that was the plan, I enjoy such competition. I know he is going to hear this and will come hard at me in the fourth T20I. As a group we have decided to bat with seven batters and we have to take responsibility, like it happened today if the batters score runs then you don’t need someone at number eight. As Surya mentioned, they (SKY and Tilak) play together and spend time together, good to have someone like SKY in the team and when he takes responsibility it sends a message to the others.

Rovman Powell: We were 10-15 runs short. But having said that, credit to the batting unit especially the opening partnership, that’s the kind of start what we asked for. In hindsight you can say that (sending Pooran at number 3) but we wanted to give Charles an opportunity, we know what Pooran can do and what kind of form he is in. We bowled with too much pace on the ball and that made it easy for the Indian batters. We have a few days gap and we have to come up with better plans.

Suryakumar Yadav | Player of the Match: It was really important to be myself when I went in to bat in the powerplay, that’s what the team management also wanted. I have practised these (ramps and scoops) strokes a lot and I love doing that. We (himself and Tilak) have batted together for a long time, we both understand how each other bats and the way he batted, it gave me a lot of confidence. It was a great innings from him (Tilak) at the other end. It was running on the back of my mind (that India had never lost three T20Is in a row) but at the same time we spoke in the team meeting, our captain said someone needs to put their hand up and win the match, glad I was able to do that.