Indian batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal and talented Shubman Gill showcased their remarkable batting skills to help Team India register a comfortable nine-wicket win over West Indies in the fourth T20I on Saturday, August 12.
India successfully chased down a target of 179 with three overs remaining, leveling the five-match series at 2-2. Tomorrow’s game will be the series-deciding contest, and Hardik Pandya and company hope to make history by winning a five-game series despite falling behind 0-2.
Shubman Gill (77 off 47 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (84 not out off 51 balls), India’s openers, gave an excellent performance right away. The highest opening partnership for India in this series thus far, they put together a powerful partnership of 165 runs. Despite worries that the pitch would deteriorate in the second half, it played evenly the whole game after being resurfaced with Mississippi soil. The favorable circumstances were fully utilized by Gill and Jaiswal, who scored 66 runs in the Power Play period with eight fours and three sixes.
They tied Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s record for India’s second-highest opening partnership in T20Is against Sri Lanka in Indore in 2017 with their 165-run stand. This outstanding performance might herald a new era in which younger players dominate the shortest format. In the series, Jaiswal, who was making his international debut, hit his first T20I fifty and was named player of the match for his performance. He scored runs with a strike rate of 164.71 and had an inning that had 11 fours and three sixes.
Yashasvi Jaiswal remarked, when asked about his performance in the game, “It’s not easy, but I’m glad to go out there and express myself. I want to express my gratitude to Hardik bhai and the support team for their faith.”
“That shows so much impact on my mind. I try to play how the team needs and how I can express myself towards the plan. I try to score quickly, how many shots I can play in the powerplay and put my team in a nice shape.” he added.
On a pitch that provided the ball with strong bounce but little assistance for spin in the earlier game, India’s bowlers performed a fantastic job of preventing West Indies from scoring a large score. Except for Shimron Hetmyer’s 61 and Shai Hope’s 45, the West Indies, who opted to bat first, were unable to capitalize on the opportunity.
With the exception of Hope and Hetmyer’s 49-run partnership for the fifth wicket and Hetmyer and Odean Smith’s 47-run partnership for the eighth wicket, the home team struggled to create sizable partnerships.
Arshdeep Singh (3/38) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/26), in particular, had a tight grip on the West Indies hitters. Hetmyer attempted to rally his team at the end, but India’s strong batting effort ensured that West Indies’ score wasn’t high enough to pose a serious threat to them.
