The Indian cricket team beat the West Indies in a close contest on Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in the five-T20I series. The win at Indore was a welcome one in light of what transpired in the second game at Ranchi, where the Caribbean team chased down a massive 250 with nine balls to spare.
So, it was a job well done from Team India in Indore. The hosts scored 223, and the West Indies fell short by 14 runs. But it wasn’t a perfect outing by any means. India were 115/1 in 8.1 overs and looked good for another 250+ score; however, they lost their next four wickets for just 20 runs, and the propensity to attack had to be reined in as a result.
They eventually recovered due to handy contributions from Nitish Kumar Reddy (21 off 14 balls), Tilak Varma (run out in a most bizarre manner for 28 off 16 balls), Axar Patel (20 off 14 balls) and the tailenders. If the latter – Arshdeep Singh (11 off 8 balls) and Prince Yadav (13 not out off 6 balls) — hadn’t come to the party, Varma’s run-out would have felt a lot worse. It was a classic case of momentarily dropping guard and facing the consequences.
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What happened was this: in the 17th over of the Indian innings, Gudakesh Motie bowled a low full toss to Patel, who played it delicately into the gap behind square leg. A clear two, but then Kamil Pooran, running from deep midwicket, effected a dive to stop the ball very close to the boundary. It was not a convincing one, though, so he had to put in another dive, which was not convincing either. But somehow, he had managed to stop the boundary. He then picked up the ball and threw it to captain and wicketkeeper Shai Hope.
Now what the batsmen did: they completed the first run, after which they thought it was a four and bumped fists as they crossed each other on their way to their respective ends. As Patel was cantering to the striker’s end, he saw Pooran’s throw for Hope. Sensing something amiss, he grounded his bat as Hope removed the bails. Thereafter, Hope threw the ball to the non-striker’s end. Motie collected the ball and dislodged the bails. At this moment, Varma was walking towards his end, yards out and totally oblivious of what had happened.
The West Indies appealed for a run-out and got the decision in their favour after the umpires went upstairs, leaving Varma stunned, and Patel relieved, having just survived. India were looking to score more runs than they eventually got, after the Windies pulled off the second biggest successful chase among full members in Ranchi. Thankfully for Varma and the team, tailenders got some useful runs and, more importantly, India won the match.
If the West Indies had got over the line this time too, Varma would have found himself in a lot of trouble, under severe scrutiny from fans and the media. It was an error that should not have happened at the international level. Both batsmen were at fault for taking it easy, not just Varma. After all, it was not the first time that such a thing happened on a cricket field, that a fielder fumbles on the boundary and that the batsmen get confused as a result, leading to a run-out.