3rd ODI: India beat West Indies by 96 runs to clinch the series 3-0

Ahmedabad: Rohit Sharma’s tenure as India ODI captain began with a 3-0 demolition of the West Indies after the impressive hosts put up an all-round performance to win the third game by 96 runs here on Friday.

Shreyas Iyer’s responsible 80 coupled with Rishabh Pant’s aggressive 56 powered India to a challenging 265 in the inconsequential fixture.

The hosts then shot all out their opponents for 169 in 37.1 overs as the visitors continued their dismal batting show.

With one eye on the 2023 ODI World Cup, the Indian team management gained plenty positives from their experiments in the third-match series including the emergence of pacer Prasidh Krishna as the strike bowler. He ended with nine wickets in the series.

Deepak Hooda, who did not play the third ODI, showed promise as a middle-order batter while Suryakumar Yadav showed that he could curb his natural aggressive intent if such a situation arises.

The wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, who



made a return as a pairing, did not bowl together but did well individually.

An ordinary batting performance the West Indies batters also made the Indian bowlers’ task easier throughout the series.

The away team was never in the chase and was blown away by another stellar show of fast bowling.

Pacer Deepak Chahar, playing his first game of the series, struck twice in the fifth over. First he sent back Brandon King (14), who edged to Suryakumar Yadav in the slip cordon and then on the last ball of the over, removed Shamarh Brooks (0), leaving the visitors at 25/3. West Indies could not recover from there on.

The ODI series will be followed by three T20 in Kolkata beginning February 16.