New Chandigarh: Thanks to captain Shai Hope's courageous unbeaten century of 162 runs, West Indies saved their honor by defeating India by five wickets with 10 balls to spare in the third ODI on Saturday. Despite losing this match, India won the three-match series 2-1. Thanks to the blazing century of KL Rahul (129 not out) and the brilliant innings of 92 runs by opener Rohit Sharma, India made a huge score of 351 runs for seven wickets in 50 overs but could not save it. West Indies won by scoring 352 runs for five wickets in 48.2 overs.
Shai Hope hit 17 fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 162 runs in 143 balls. He received the Player of the Match award for this innings. Hope played a record-breaking innings and almost single-handedly led West Indies to this historic victory. Hope has become the first wicketkeeper captain to touch the figure of 150 in ODI. After keeping wickets for 50 overs, Hope has shown his fighting spirit by batting for 48.2 overs. He was also suffering from injury for half of his innings and was finding it difficult to score runs. Despite all this, Hope has led West Indies to victory. For the first time since 2023, West Indies have won in ODI against India, that too by achieving the target of 352 runs. In reply to India's 351, Weiser Indies quickly lost the wicket of in-form John Campbell, who was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj in the powerplay. After this, two players who had scored centuries in the previous match came together. Although some chances were missed in the first powerplay, Shai Hope and Aamir Jangu batted at a good pace and made a century partnership for the second wicket. When it seemed that India had no plans left, a run-out dismissed Jangu. After this, Hope made two consecutive half-century partnerships. The first was with Sherfane Rutherford, who was wrongly labeled 'caught behind' despite receiving a review. And then with Chemo Paul. This was an important partnership.
Hope was struggling, Paul showed aggressive attitude
Hope was struggling a bit and Paul adopted an aggressive approach to keep the required run-rate under control. West Indies, who were leading in terms of run-rate till the 40th over, lost a bit of momentum after Paul's dismissal. With 56 runs needed in the last 5 overs, Hope once again showed pace. He hit a six and a four against Kuldeep in the 46th over, hit consecutive boundaries against Gurnoor Brar in the next over and then almost put the match in West Indies' lap in the 48th over when Anshul Kamboj gave away 22 runs.
India won the toss and decided to bat
Earlier, India had won the toss and decided to bat first but India suffered initial setbacks in the form of Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. In the first 10 overs, India was able to add only 28 runs on the scoreboard and the conditions were also helping the fast bowlers. However, Rohit and Gaikwad started taking control of the innings. Rohit survived DRS twice while Gaikwad had four catches dropped. Rohit scored a half-century and took over India's innings. Rohit was moving towards a century but his wicket fell at 92 and Gaikwad also got out after scoring a half-century. However, after this, KL Rahul took over the Indian innings and Rahul stood firm till the end. Along with playing century innings, Rahul also made small and useful partnerships with other batsmen. Rahul hit 10 fours and six sixes in his innings of 87 balls. Rohit hit 10 fours and three sixes in 92 runs in 85 balls. Rituraj Gaikwad hit one four and four sixes in 57 runs in 69 balls. Naman Dhir hit three fours and two sixes in 30 runs in 21 balls. For West Indies, Jayden Seales took three wickets for 62 runs.