Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the first ODI between Team India and West Indies was very impressive. India set a 309-run target for the Windies after being asked to bat first at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Friday, July 22 and they almost reached the target before eventually losing the match by only three runs as well.

While reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said: “What a game in the end boss, India won the match by only three runs, it was an extremely interesting match. I am not a very big fan of ODI cricket but if there is a definition of a humdinger, this match reminded us of that.”

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He also pointed out that the scorecard will not be a true reflection of the game as well. Aakash Chopra explained: “If you didn’t see this match till the end, you will see the scoreboard – Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer scored runs, then they got slow in the middle or at the end – you will remember all that but you won’t come to know that there was a save by Sanju Samson, because of which in my opinion, India won this match.”

However, Shikhar Dhawan (97), Shubman Gill (64) and Shreyas Iyer (54) were the only Indian batters to do well. Sanju Samson, who managed only 12 runs during the Indian innings, brilliantly saved the fifth ball of the final over bowled by Mohammed Siraj to keep India in the game as well.

Aakash Chopra, however, observed that West Indies were almost on course to score the 15 runs needed off the last over.

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“15 runs were required in the last over and it seemed that 15 runs will be scored. It almost reached that stage because there was that one ball, although the story could have ended if a four was hit off the last ball, where Mohammed Siraj bowled a wide and Sanju Samson stopped that ball by putting in a huge dive. The fine leg fielder was slightly wide and that ball would have gone for a four, which means five wides, and that would have been the game. You won the match by just three runs. So if that had been a four, the story would have ended but that did not happen,” Aakash Chopra concluded.