Yesterday India was stunned by the West Indies and exited the WorldT20 at the semi final stage. But, here we should spare a thought for Virat Kohli who had an incredible tournament and was the one man army for India. There were also some questions raised on Dhoni’s faith on Ashwin as he bowled 2 overs each in the virtual Quarter Finals and Semifinals at home, where he should have been the Shane Warne or Murali. So, we at EssentiallySports, bring you the talking points of the match.
5) No balls costing India
A man who was caught off a no-ball twice in this match, Lendl Simmons later went on to win the match for his team. He was caught by Jasprit Bumrah off the no ball of Ravichandran Ashwin and then that devil came back to haunt Ashwin again when he caught Simmons off the bowling of Hardik Pandya. A similar fate was shared by Virat Kohli when the West Indies were unable to run him out on two occasions, both on free hits.
4) Dhawan Dropped
Shikhar Dhawan was finally dropped from the team for this match. This made way for Ajinkya Rahane who made a 35 ball 40 with 2 hits to the boundary. Some say that Rahane was chosen by the team management ahead of Dhawan because he was a local boy. However, rumor has it` that time is up for Shikhar Dhawan who hasn’t performed for way too long.
3) Bad ass attitude of Andre Russel
Keeping up the reputation of the West Indian batsmen, who are known to be uber jocks, Andre Russel’s mis-hits went for boundaries. Whenever, he hit them off the middle, the bowlers stood no chance. It was an innings – and a setting – that suited him to a T, much like his Mr T hairstyle. Russell’s first six came off the fourth ball of his innings and when the ball was soaring into the night sky after coming in contact with his bat, it seemed like it would clear the entire stadium and his final one sealed the match with two balls to spare.
2) King Kohli
Virat Kohli continued from where he left against Australia. He is in sublime form and proving to be the Tendulkar of the 90s as his wicket determines India’s fate. His running between the wickets is flawless and his fitness levels has rubbed on his teammates as India got 92 runs through fours and sixes and 96 of them simply by running between the wickets. He placed the wide yorkers past point. The whiplash his wrists can generate took length balls from outside off and put them in the square-leg boundary. He ended up with 89 runs off 47 balls with 11 hits to the fence and 1 over it. He even took the wicket of Charles at a crucial moment.
1) The Simmon Show
The lucky man who was caught twice on no balls led the carnage with his 51 ball 81 with 7 fours and 5 sixes. He led the West Indian team to just 1 step away from achieving their mission of being the world champions once again. Many would have thought that after the fall of Gayle’s wicket, the match was over but Simmons silenced everyone with his whirlwind innings.
