Nailed! Axar yells in delight right after bat hit ball. West Indies' fielders are lunging in disappointment as this match and series slips away. Mayers tries the yorker again, misses. It's a full toss. Axar was across to off, he slapped it straight and it sailed. Jubilation in the stands among the Indian players.
West Indies vs India, 2nd ODI at Port of Spain, WI v IND, Jul 24 2022 - Match Result
It seems the exhilaration levels of this series has been dialed up to seventeen in this series. West Indies are 0-2 down but it's not hard for them to have been 2-0. Towards the end, this game was lost due to a couple of bowling errors which weighed down on them and deny the team a series-levelling win. But they stayed in it for a long time. Spare a thought for Shai Hope who got a 100 on his 100th ODI. The upside is he'll get another chance to make a mark on his 101st outing. That'll come in a couple of days, we'll see you there. For now, it's goodbye from me, Ekanth, my co-commentator Himanshu Agrawal, and our scorer, Thilak.
Stat from Sampath: Most runs chased successfully in the last 10 overs (41-50) in Men's ODIs since 2001:
109 - Pakistan vs Bangladesh, Mirpur 2014
102 - New Zealand vs Australia, Christchurch 2005
101 - New Zealand vs Ireland, Dublin 2022
100 - India vs West Indies, Port of Spain 2022
India's previous highest was 91 runs against Zimbabwe in the 2015 World Cup
SaraT: "1 bad over from A.Joseph costed game for WI, if not things could have been different for them, well played WI though"
Romarsha: "Maybe India takes all the luck from bilateral series and none is left in ICC tournaments "
Prasu KL: "Regardless of the result, WI must feel really proud with the way they played and fought till the last ball in both these games. They must not be disheartened "
Jeetu Sangwani: "India wins coz may-errs"
Shikhar Dhawan, India Captain: I feel it was a great a team performance. We made mistakes, we took the challenge and we had self-belief. I was also surprised. Hats off to our middle order. All the batters were amazing, Axar and Avesh, who got those boundaries, were amazing. Our domestic and IPL cricket keeps us ready as we play in front of big crowds. As Axar said, he's done it multiple times in IPL. That brings a big stage. At the halfway stage, we felt we pulled them. We got a couple of wickets, then Hope and Pooran took off. We thought we can do it if they can. We started slowly, I thought we can take off against left arm spin. I got out, Shreyas and Sanju played well. There was a silly mistake with the run out. But the way Axar played was amazing. Our support staff has been excellent. (On Hope) It was great when I scored a 100 on my 100th match. Congrats to Hope on doing it, he's a quality player. He's got a bright present and future with West Indies.
Nicholas Pooran, West Indies Captain: We lost it in the last overs, Axar played well and we didn't hold our nerves. We could not keep things down in the last five overs. We felt that it got easier to hit spinners. And we gambled with Akeal bowling against left handers. One wicket would have opened up things but Axar played brilliantly. Hope's innings was impressive, it was exceptional as a batting group. We wanna win, we wanna win pretty bad in the next game. That's all we are aiming for.
Axar Patel, POTM for 1 for 40 and 64* (35): It's very special, to get it in a crucial, series-winning cause is amazing. When I went out, I aimed for 10-11 an over. We thought it could be done as we have IPL experience. We wanted to be calm and keep cover of the rate. This was special as this is my first ODI since 2017, even my first fifty came here. Winning the series too makes me feel wonderful.
6:22 pm: Axar is still in smiles as he's greeted by his team-mates as he walks back. He's turned this one. India started well despite Dhawan's low scoring, Gill got off the blocks. Iyer and Samson consolidated and their wickets signalled trouble. Every bowler aside from Hayden Walsh, who bowled only three, were among the wickets. Shepherd and Seales hit their lengths consistently, Alzarri was excellent till his last two overs. His leakage of runs put India back in. There were ample turning points and potential moments of truth. Gill's hard-to-comprehend scoop, Samson's run out, Hooda's wicket after being unable to launch big shots. But Axar stood tall, Avesh got lucky breaks with swings falling in gaps, bowlers going wrong in a couple of overs and it almost inexplicably finished with India winning.
Arun Prakash: " Sixar Patel! What a finish! "
6 off 3. One hit or one wicket could clear the game.
Yorker at the feet, Siraj opens the bat-face and gets it to backward point.
King and Pooran chat with Mayers. He comes in with four deep fielders leg side.
Yorker length again, Axar can manage to only jam the flick to deep midwicket.
Yorker outside off, it goes under Axar's bat as he tries to drag the flick. Dot!
Around
Packie Chan: "Axar batting sensibly...waiting for the last over!" It's time. The artificial lights are on.
8 off 6, two wickets in hand. Mayers it will be for his first time bowling the final over in an LOI.
Mit Thakkar: "SUPER OVER!!!!!"
Bouncer, pulled. Taken in the deep! This was a slower bouncer at the head, Avesh pulled with eyes off. He got height but could not clear deep square leg.
Short over the stumps, Avesh swings hard. Misses and loses his shape. It goes to the keeper.
Dhairya: "Axar is not framing strike properly? May be he want Avesh to hit 2 or 3 before holding out?" He's framing the innings by outsourcing hitting responsibilities.
Back of length over the stumps, pulled into the ground to deep backward square.
Chintan : "Who bowls the Final over if required!!!" Mayers is my guess but they might gamble with a spinner.
Back of length at the body following him, pulled to midwicket.
Room offered, slapped again. This goes through wide long-off. Four more. 300 up. Avesh's swinging as hard as he can, connected twice so far. This was fullish but wide enough to free his arms.
Zafar: "Important 49th over for seales" Could not overstate it.
Full on the pads, swings a flick to deep square along the ground.
Alzarri and Shepherd are done. Seales to start his final over
Full ball follows Axar who was down leg. His feet were diagonally place and he heaved. It hit the edge, onto pad, towards short third. No thought of a run as Axar had to retain strike.
Essentially a free hit.
Bouncer, this one's over the stumps. Avesh clears the way and tries to cut it but swings out of shape and misses.
Full outside off, driven to long-off.
Full outside off, tries to whack it. Gets it off the bottom to long-on.
Bouncer at sixth stump, Avesh shapes up with his back leg to the off side and front to leg. Alzarri bounced him, Avesh let it go. It looked a tight call, but the margin went in the batter's favour.
Beaten. Slower one into the pitch outside off. Avesh tried to swipe it over the offside and missed.
Driven straight, Joseph gets a leg on it. It rebounds to the left. One taken. The ball was fullish outside off.
19 off 18, three wickets in hand. 81 in the last seven.
Close to the tramline, it's full and Avesh who's across drives it to cover.
Full outside off, goes for the drive. Not good enough connection. Goes to mid-off.
Slapped, goes wide of mid-off to the fence! It was short and wide, Avesh had enough room to cut it hard. The fielder leapt to his left but could not reach it.
2W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad | |
Toss | West Indies, elected to bat first |
Series | |
Season | 2022 |
Player Of The Match | |
Series result | India led the 3-match series 2-0 |
Match number | ODI no. 4438 |
Match days | 24 July 2022 - day (50-over match) |
ODI debut | |
Umpires | |
TV Umpire | |
Reserve Umpire | |
Match Referee |