After registering a close win by just a couple of wickets against West Indies on Sunday, India’s stand-in skipper, Shikhar Dhawan lavished praise on his side’s youngsters for staging a superb show at Queen’s Park Oval. He also credited IPL and domestic cricket for everyone’s gradual developments. The Men in Blue’s second-string squad, led by Shikhar Dhawan, is currently in West Indies for the three-match ODI series which they won with an entertaining two-wicket win on Sunday.
Shikhar Dhawan is leading the team
There, at the Queen’s Park Oval, West Indies was well supported by Shai Hope’s 135-ball 115 and Nicholas Pooran’s 77-ball 74 to reach 311/6 after opting to bat. In reply, India’s Shubman Gill (43 off 49 balls), Shreyas Iyer (63 off 71 balls), and Sanju Samson (54 off 51 balls) kept their team in the hunt but they still required 100 more runs in the last 10 overs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead. Then Axar Patel took charge, scoring an unbeaten 35-ball 64 with five sixes and three fours to see off the target with two balls and two wickets to spare.
Debutant Avesh Khan, despite making a little impact with the ball, added 10 runs with the bat as well. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Dhawan lauded his teammates for pulling off a remarkable win in the 2nd ODI. Then, he went on to credit IPL and India’s domestic cricket for their impressive show even in front of away crowds.
Axar Patel took India over the line with the last ball six
Talking about the performance of the team during the post-match presentation, Shikhar Dhawan said, “I feel it was a great team performance. We made mistakes, we took the challenge and we had self-belief. I was also surprised. Hats off to our middle order. All the batters were amazing, Axar and Avesh, who got those boundaries, were amazing. Our domestic and IPL cricket keeps us ready as we play in front of big crowds.”
He further added, “At the halfway stage, we felt we pulled them. We got a couple of wickets, and then Hope and Pooran took off. We thought we can do it if they can. We started slowly, I thought we could take off against left-arm spin. I got out, and Shreyas and Sanju played well. There was a silly mistake with the runout. But the way Axar played was amazing.”
Now, India will be looking to complete the sweep by beating West Indies on July 27 at the same time in the third and final ODI.
