India vs West Indies: Axar Patel breaks MS Dhoni’s 17-year-old batting record with his blitz

Team India claim sensational win

Team India required 8 off the final over and the equation came down to six off three balls, but Patel – who has played several impactful knocks in the IPL and in the domestic circuit – showed his experience and composure to take his team home in a tense contest.

He stepped into the middle to bat at number seven and hammered five sixes and three boundaries in his knock. He notched up his maiden ODI fifty off just 27 deliveries.

Axar surpasses MSD

With his blitz against the West Indies, Patel even went on to break Dhoni’s 17-year-old record of hitting most sixes by an Indian batsman at No.7 or lower in a successful ODI chase.

The former India wicketkeeper-batsman had in 2005 hit three maximums against Zimbabwe. Former India all-rounder Yusuf Pathan also equalled Dhoni’s record twice in 2011 but it was Patel – whom the Jharkhand cricketer nicknamed ‘Bapu’ – who surpassed him.

Axar named player of the match

Patel – who was also the most economical bowler in the match with his figures of 9-1-40-1 – was adjudged the player of the match for his all-round effort.

While speaking during the post-match presentation, the Gujarat cricketer said, “I think this is a special one. It came at a crucial time and also helped the team to win the series. We have done the same in the IPL. We just needed to remain calm and keep the intensity up. I was playing an ODI after close to 5 years. I would want to continue performing like this for my team.”

Team India stuns West Indies, again

Chasing 312 in the second one-dayer, the Indians were in a spot of bother as they had lost three wickets (Shikhar Dhawan 13, Shubman Gill 43, and Suryakumar Yadav 9) inside 18 overs. However, the 99-run stand between Shreyas Iyer (63 off 71) and Sanju Samson (54 off 51) revived the visitors. Samson slammed his maiden ODI fifty and hit some trademark inside-out maximums over the extra cover region.

When Samson was run out for 54 at a crucial stage, Deepak Hooda (33) and Patel shared a valuable partnership. Patel, then, kept stitching partnerships with Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan and kept the tourists in the hunt. He finished the game for his team and played spoilsport to West Indies’ hope of squaring off the series.

Shai Hope’s remarkable century in his 100th ODI appearance for West Indies and captain Nicholas Pooran’s 74 went in vain as the visitors took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

It was India’s 12th consecutive bilateral ODI series win over Windies, the most by any team in the world.