India continue their dominance over West Indies with 12th straight bilateral ODI series win – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

West Indies looked in good position after posting over 300 runs and had India chasing a monstrous 100-run deficit with 10 overs to go at Port of Spain on Sunday. Then stepped up Axar Patel to smash a 35-ball 64 not out, including the winning six, to secure a series-clinching two-wicket win for India with two balls to spare.

In the final over, India needed eight runs for victory but with only two wickets left. Medium pacer Kyle Mayers (2/48) bowled the over and only two runs came off his first three deliveries, leaving India still requiring six runs off three balls.

Axar Patel only need the one, smashing Mayers’ fourth delivery for six.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss and chose to bat at Queen’s Park Oval, reaching 311/6 thanks to Shai Hope’s 135-ball 115 — with eight fours and three sixes — and 74 from skipper Nicholas Pooran, who smashed six sixes.

India won the series opener by three runs on Friday after West Indies chose to field first — reaching 305/6 in reply to India’s 308/7.

With the two wins, India took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series. India have now gone 15 years without losing a bilateral ODI series against the West Indies. The last time West Indies beat India in an ODI series was 2006 when the Brian Lara-captained Windies triumphed 4-1 in 2006.

Stats after second India-West Indies ODI:

# India have the most consecutive bilateral series wins against a team (12 vs West Indies going back to 2007). Pakistan are the next-most ruthless – unbeaten for 11 series against Zimbabwe.

# India successfully chased down 100 runs in the last 10 overs. This is the fourth biggest rally by a team in a successful run chase since 2001. Biggest is 109 runs by Pakistan vs Bangladesh in 2014 followed by 102 by New Zealand vs Australia in 2005 and the Black Caps again (102 runs) versus Ireland in 2022. India’s previous biggest 10 overs in a successful chase were 91 runs against Zimbabwe in the 2015 World Cup.

# 311 is the third highest target successfully chased in ODIs in West Indies. England chasing 361 runs in 2019 and Sri Lanka reaching 313 in 2003 are the bigger targets.

# Axar Patel’s unbeaten 64 runs is the lowest highest individual scores in successful 300+ chases in ODIs. The next on the list is Shoaib Malik’s 65 against India in 2005 when Pakistan chased down 319 runs. It is followed by Gautam Gambhir’s 68 against Sri Lanka in Karachi in 2008 while chasing 310 runs.

# Shai Hope, playing his 100th ODI, became the tenth batter to hit a century on such a milestone. Gordon Greenidge, Chris Cairns, Mohammad Yousuf, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Marcus Trescothick, Ramnaresh Sarwan, David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan are the other batters to have scored tons in their 100th ODIs.

# Hope’s 115 runs in his 100th ODI is the sixth highest individual score among the centurions. Gayle top-scored with 132 followed by Yousuf (129), Warner (124), Cairns (115) and Sarwan (115).

# Shreyas Iyer has now scored seven fifties from eight innings against the West Indies in ODIs. His list: 71, 65, 70, 53, 7, 80, 54, 63 which averages at 57.87.

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