After a thrilling first ODI, the India -West Indies series gave us another entertaining encounter where the Men in Blue chased down a mammoth 312 with just two wickets in hand. The chase was led by all-rounder Axar Patel who smashed a brilliant 64 in 35 balls with three fours and five sixes after coming in when India was reeling at 205 in 38.3 overs.
As Axar inched near the total, the tensions in the visitor’s dugout rose until the end of the game as these emotions burst out into celebrations. Players mobbed the Gujarat-born all-rounder and lauded his efforts as the festivities now shifted into the dressing room. For us fans, the captain himself presented a glimpse of these celebrations as he posted a video on social media.
The clip was captioned, “Talent wins game but teamwork and intelligence wins championship! ? Kudos to team for the amazing face-off! ?? #IndvsWI”, as the entire team cheered after another spectacular win.
In the post-match interview, Dhawan addressed the efforts of his team after a difficult first innings. He said, “It was a great team performance. Boys didn't lose the self-belief, that is amazing. Iyer, Sanju, Axar everyone was amazing, even Avesh came out in his debut game and scored those 11 important runs."
"Thanks to IPL, they perform on a huge stage. I felt that we bowled nicely. They got off to a good start. Hope and Pooran batted well. We thought if they could do it, we knew that we could do it. We started a little slow,” Dhawan concluded.
The two teams will now play the final ODI of the three-match series on 26 July 2022 before moving to the five-match T20I series.