In the West Indies tour of India, the home team beat the Windies by 17 runs in the third and final T20I of the bilateral series. Match winning efforts from Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer and Harshal Patel helped the Indian team to seal the T20I series 3-0 after clinching the ODI series with a similar outcome.
 India had to bat after losing the toss. Ishan Kishan (34) walked out to bat with a new opening partner in the final match of the series. Ruturaj Gaikwad couldn’t provide a robust start as he was dismissed in the third over of the game on Jason Holder’s bowling. Kishan and Shreyas Iyer (25) stitched a 53-run partnership in the next six overs, which laid a foundation for setting up a good total. The well-set Iyer and Kishan departed in the following overs and that put pressure on the home side. Rohit Sharma came out to bat at number five, the Indian skipper struggled throughout his 15-ball seven-run inning. Suryakumar Yadav (65) and Venkatesh Iyer (35*) were the new men at the crease. The two-middle order batsmen didn’t take much time to settle in and started scoring runs from all parts of the ground. Yadav and Venkatesh created havoc in the last six overs. The two batsmen targetted the fine-leg region to gather those quick runs and stitched a partnership of 91 runs.Â
The Rohit-led Indian team managed to get a hold of the game early in the second innings. The hosts pocketed four wickets in the first 10 overs. Wickets were falling at regular intervals on one end while Nicholas Pooran (61) was scoring runs on the other end. The fall of wickets didn’t bother Pooran as the southpaw kept on crunching those crucial runs and kept the Windies into the game throughout the series. Pooran departed when the equation was 37 off 18 and the credit for this massive wicket goes to Shardul Thakur. Romario Shepherd (29) also raked in a few sixes but couldn’t finish the job for his team as he fell prey to Harshal Patel in the 19th over. At the climax of the chase, the Kieron Pollard-led team fell short of 17 runs.
Patel was the pick among the bowlers for his economical bowling figures of 3 for 22. Venkatesh, Deepak Chahar and Thakur had two scalps each.Â
On the other end for the Windies, Dominic Drakes, Hayden Walsh, Roston Chase, Shepherd and Jason Holder had pocketed one wicket each.
Yadav was adjudged Man of the Match for his 65 off 31 with one four and seven sixes. The 31-year-old was also named the Man of the Series for churning out 107 runs in three matches at an average of 53.50.
Scorecard:Â
India: 184/5, Overs: 20, Suryakumar Yadav (65), Roston Chase 1/23
West Indies: 167/9, Overs: 20, Nicholas Pooran (61), Harshal Patel 3/22