Axar Patel's blistering unbeaten 64 at the finish line helped the visitors establish an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-game series as India defeated the West Indies by two wickets in the second One-Day International at Queen's Park Oval.
With Axar Patel and Deepak Hooda at the crease and only five wickets left on Sunday night (IST), India was in serious trouble as they needed 100 runs from the final 10 overs to win the match. Chasing a massive 312 for victory in a 50-over game is usually a difficult challenge.
However, the two used a combination of perseverance and tenacity and, when necessary, found the boundaries to pursue the objective with only two balls left. Hooda left for 33 in the 45th over, leaving Patel to finish the job. Patel's 35-ball 64 included five sixes and three boundaries, finishing the job.
The hosts got off to a solid start earlier thanks to Shai Hope's century and Kyle Mayers' quick-fire 39, having won the toss and chosen to bat first. Of the two starting pitchers, Mayers was the more aggressive as the left-hander easily found openings in the field to easily retrieve boundaries. When India sent in Hooda, the part-time off-spinner, to bowl at Mayers, he quickly reached 39 off 22 balls.
West Indies had had scored 65 runs in nine overs when Hooda entered the fray with Mayers on 39. His first delivery was an off-break that Mayers returned, and the left-hander could do nothing except chip it back to the bowler.
Avesh Khan, who was playing in his first ODI, went for 36 runs in his first three overs, giving India's pace attack an early indication that they were useless. In a dismal ODI debut, he concluded with 64 runs allowed in nine overs while going wicketless.
According to the ICC, Hope scored a hundred in his 100th ODI to join an exclusive group of athletes in Port of Spain. The West Indian opener celebrated reaching his 13th hundred overall by hitting a huge six off Chahal in the next ball after reaching his century in the 45th over of the innings.
On a day when India's other spinners, Hooda and Axar, kept a lid on the scoring rate, Chahal went for runs. Hope got off to a poor start, but in the 21st over, off 69 balls, he reached his fifty. After that, though, India struck quickly, taking Shamarh Brooks and Brandon King out in back-to-back overs from Axar Patel and Chahal.
However, Nicholas Pooran became Hope's partner, and the two put up a stunning 117-run partnership, with Pooran taking the initiative to attack the Indian bowlers. Hope completed his historic hundred late in the innings, building on his strong start. Pooran would eventually reach fifty, but Shardul Thakur bowled him around the legs before the anticipated strong acceleration in the last overs.
Brief scores: West Indies 311/6 in 50 overs (Shai Hope 115, Kyle Mayers 39, Shamarh Brooks 35, Nicholas Pooran 74; Shardul Thakur 3/54) lost to India 312/8 in 49.4 overs (Shubman Gill 43, Shreyas Iyer 63, Sanju Samson 54, Deepak Hooda 33, Axar Patel 64 not out; Alzarri Joseph 2/46, Kyle Mayers 2/48) by two wickets.