A brilliant century from the Windies opener, Shai Hope in his 100th ODI appearance and skipper, Nicholas Pooran’s impactful 74 went in vain as West Indies lost yet another match in the series against Indies. The Indian all-rounder, Axar Patel was the wrecker-in-chief for the visitors as he scored India’s second-fastest half-century against the Windies and helped his team to seal the last-over thriller. India successfully chased down the target of 312 in the second ODI in Port of Spain with just a couple of deliveries to spare.
Axar Patel smashed a huge sealed deal with a massive six in the last over and with that broke MS Dhoni’s 17-year-old record. After India was reeling at 79 for 3 in the 18th over of the chase, Shreyas Iyer (63) and Sanju Samson (54) helped India recover with their 99-run partnership as they scored their respective half-centuries. Deepak Hooda (33) and Axar then stitched a quick fifty-run partnership before West Indies exposed India’s tail-end batting with the latter as the last hope in the chase.
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West Indies did dominate the majority of the defense but Axa Patel’s flurry of boundaries – 3 fours and 5 sixes – along with Avesh Khan’s twin boundaries reduced the equation to 6 needed off 3. Axar managed to hold his nerves and smashed the wider low full toss delivery from Kyle Mayers in the fourth ball of the last over, over long-off, as India inflicted another shattering loss for the Windies.
Here is the video of the six from Axar Patel:
.@akshar2026 takes #TeamIndia home! Finishes it in style.
Watch all the action from the India tour of West Indies LIVE, only on #FanCode 👉 https://t.co/RCdQk1l7GU@BCCI @windiescricket #WIvIND #INDvsWIonFanCode #INDvsWI pic.twitter.com/WHjdscpzd9
— FanCode (@FanCode) July 24, 2022
With the unbeaten knock of 64 runs off 35 balls, Axar Patel managed to break Dhoni’s long-standing record in ODI cricket. The five sixes he hit smashed during the chase is now the most by an India batter at No.7 or lower in a successful ODI chase. Dhoni had recorded three sixes during India’s chase against Zimbabwe back in 2005. Yusuf Pathan had equaled Dhoni’s tally twice in his career, both in 2011 – against South Africa and Ireland.
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Talking about the same, during the post-match -presentation, Axar Patel said, “I think this is a special one. It came at a crucial time and also helped the team to win the series. We have done the same in the IPL. We just needed to remain calm and keep the intensity up. I was playing an ODI after close to 5 years. I would want to continue performing like this for my team.”
