India’s veteran leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bowled the 16th over against the West Indies at the Providence Stadium, Guyana on Sunday and that over yielded three wickets, including a run-out of Romario Shepherd. Chahal stumped Jason Holder and also plumbed Shimron Hetmyer in front of the wickets to turn the match on its head. Furthermore, Chahal conceded only two runs in that over.
However, Indian captain Hardik Pandya didn’t give the ball to Chahal in the 18th over and instead backed Arshdeep Singh. Moreover, the penultimate over was bowled by rookie fast bowler Mukesh Kumar when the West Indies needed 12 runs.
The pitch was on the slower side and Pandya’s decision to not back Yuzvendra Chahal was baffling for Tamil Nadu batter Abhinav Mukund. Chahal returned with impressive figures of 2-19 in the three overs he bowled but Pandya definitely missed a trick by not giving him his final over.
“I can’t get an explanation for it because 10 times out of 10 you would have gone with another over from Chahal and tried to close out the game there, especially with Alzarri Joseph there. I understand the left hander is still there, but you got Hetmyer out in the previous over, bowling a full one. You have the bigger boundary to deal with,” said Mukund while talking on Jio Cinema.
The Tamil Nadu batter added: “I was just a bit baffled by that decision to go back to Arshdeep because he is your strike bowler. If you wanted to bowl him, you could have had him bowl the 19th, left the last over to Mukesh or even brought Arshdeep for the final over, depending on the number of runs.”
With this win, West Indies registered their second consecutive T20I victory against India for the first time since 2016.
Pandya has done a fine job as a leader but he definitely got his tactics wrong in the second T20I. Meanwhile, Nicholas Pooran scored a match-winning knock of 67 runs off just 40 balls to help his team get close to the target of 153 runs.
The third T20I of the series will be played at the same venue of Providence Stadium, Guyana on Tuesday.
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