Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill stitched opening stand of 165 runs.
In the fourth T20 International, held in Lauderhill, Florida, on Saturday, India humiliated West Indies by nine wickets thanks to brilliant performances from Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
In the fourth T20 International, held in Lauderhill, Florida, on Saturday, India humiliated West Indies by nine wickets thanks to brilliant performances from Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. India levelled the five-match series with a victory after chasing down 179 with a full three overs remaining. On Sunday, the fifth and final T20I will be played. India needed some runs from their openers going into this game, and the two young lads delivered.
From the first ball, Gill (77 off 47 balls) and Jaiswal (84 not out off 51 balls) moved into overdrive, and they seldom ever did the reverse. It was India’s best opening wicket stand in this series so far, scoring 165 runs together.
Concerns were raised that the pitch would slow down in the second part of the game, as it frequently did in the past. But for the entire game, the recently renovated centre square made with Mississippi dirt held true.
Gill and Jaiswal made the most of the wicket’s friendliness as 66 runs erupted in the Power Play section. The Indian batsmen’ domination was highlighted by the eight fours and three sixes they blasted during that phase.
Interestingly, Gill’s punishing bat was the source of all three sixes.
Gill sliced Rovman Powell past the point fielder for a pair before cruising beyond the fifty-run threshold.
Soon after his partner, Jaiswal, reached that important milestone, and he did so in an even more amazing way.
The left-hander stepped over and slammed the ball through wide square leg for a boundary as Powell attempted to go outside of the off-stump. Powell then celebrated his first T20I fifty with a face-revealing grin.
By scoring 165 runs together, Gill and Jaiswal tied the record for India’s second-highest opening partnership in T20 Internationals. Now they are locked with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, who in 2017 made 165 against Sri Lanka at Indore.
As far as the shortest format is concerned, it was possibly the first chapter in transferring the torch to the younger crop.
Earlier, despite a pitch with real bounce and little turn, India’s bowlers did a fantastic job of holding West Indies to a score that was below par.
It was understandable for the West Indies to choose to bat first in this situation because teams batting first frequently enjoyed a noticeable edge, partly because the pitch tends to slow down as the game goes on.
With the exception of Shimron Hetmyer (61) and Shai Hope (45), the home batsmen, nevertheless, missed a great opportunity to add to the total.
In fact, during their innings, the hosts failed to put together a single fifty-run stand.
Two partnerships—a 49-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Hope and Hetmyer and a 47-run partnership for the eighth wicket between Hetmyer and Odean Smith—were the focus of the West Indies essay.
At other times, the Windies batting squad was kept on a short leash by Indian spinners headed by Arshdeep Singh (3/38) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/26).
West Indies scored at a respectable rate in the final five overs, and Hetmyer, who smashed a fifty, played some meaty strokes in the process.
However, Gill and Jaiswal made sure that the sum was insufficient to even stretch India.
