India survived a tense run chase at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on Sunday to beat the West Indies by four wickets and win the ODI series 2-1. The win helped India finish the year, 2019 on a high.
Chasing Windies' 215/5, India got off to a good start with openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul posting a century-run stand. Then skipper Virat Kohli held the innings together with a well-paced 85. But the fall Kohli in the 47th over left the match in the balance.
Then arrived Shardul Thakur. The pacer hit the first ball he faced for a four, then saw a top-edge going for six. It was followed by a four to kill off the match.
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Thakur's little, epic knock fired up Kohli.
Watch it here:
This was India's 10th successive series win over the West Indies.
Displaying panache and patience in equal measure, Kohli made 85 off 81 balls, but got out to an innocuous Keemo Paul delivery with India someway off the target.
But Thakur had other ideas after Kohli became the year's highest scorer with 2455 runs.
Set a challenging target of 316 in the series-decider, India were cruising at 122 for no loss when they lost Rohit was dismissed for a run-a-ball 63 in the 22nd over.
Rahul (77 off 89 balls) and Shreyas Iyer fell for the addition of 21 runs, and the task became tricky when Rishabh Pant was bowled by Paul.
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At that stage, India were 201 in the 35th over but Kohli steadied the ship and took India closer to the target. However, for a change, he could not finish the job.
In the last five years, this is the first time Kohli has got out in the 80s or 90s in an ODI chase.
Earlier, skipper Kieron Pollard saved his best and, along with a savage Nicholas Pooran, helped the West Indies post 315 for five.
The Windies left it late with Nicholas Pooran (89) and skipper Kieron Pollard (74 not out off 51 balls) taking the Indian attack into smithereens stitching together a stand of 135 runs from 98 balls.
The Indian bowling attack that looked steady during the first 40 overs, knocked 118 in the last 10 overs to get past the 300-run target.
The Windies skipper smashed seven sixes and three fours en route to his unbeaten knock while Pooran stepped it up, hitting three sixes and 10 fours in his knock from 64 balls.
