In what turned out to be another one-sided affair, a fine all-round effort piloted the West Indies to a series-clinching eight-wicket win over India in Florida. Brandon King (85 not out) and Romario Shepherd (four wickets) were the star performers as the hosts overhauled the target of 166 in 18 overs.
King and Nicholas Pooran (47) laid the platform for the comfortable win with a second-wicket stand of 107. The duo joined forces after Arshdeep Singh had dismissed Kyle Mayers with the score reading 12 for 1. King danced down the wicket against Yuzvendra Chahal a few times and also took advantage of some poor bowling by the seamers, as he reached his fifty in the 13th over.
Pooran also blended some fine shots with a bit of rotation of strike to keep the scorecard ticking over. Eventually, Pooran turned out to be Tilak Varma’s maiden international wicket, as his attempted reverse-hit was caught by Hardik Pandya. King, however continued to crack lofts and the occasional slog-sweep, while Shai Hope provided the finishing touches by tonking Yashasvi Jaiswal for a six.
Earlier, Shepherd had generated a bit of contrast swing and also used the occasional cutter to run through the middle and lower order. Akeal Hosein, the left-arm spinner, also played his part by picking up the wickets of the openers, while Jason Holder removed the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav. Meanwhile, Suryakumar (61 runs) turned out to be the mainstay of the Indian batting. The highlight of his innings was the lofted drive off Alzarri Joseph. Joseph also suffered at the hands of Tilak, with the youngster crunching three boundaries and a four in the 6th over. Barring Suryakumar and Tilak, no other Indian batter reached the 20-run mark.
The match also saw quite a few rain interruptions, and play was also stopped due to lightning. Despite tricky conditions for bowling in the second innings – the ball got wet – Kuldeep Yadav returned praiseworthy figures of 0 for 18. However, his spin partner – Chahal – had a chastening experience, returning figures of 0 for 51.