Nicholas Pooran was at his best as he and Brandon King led the West Indies to a historic series win against India on Sunday. West Indies chased down a target of 166 with two overs to spare with Pooran scoring 47 and King remaining unbeaten on 85 off 55.
Over the course of the innings, Pooran picked up a few bruises which he later showed on his social media handles. Pooran posted a photo of himself with the bruises while thanking India fast bowler Arshdeep Singh and King. "The after effects, thank you brandon king and arsdeep," he said in the post.
Arshdeep had welcomed Pooran to the crease with a delivery that hit the West Indies batter in the ribs. It was just the second ball of Pooran's innings. Later, he got hit on his left forearm at the non-striker's end off a shot from King.
India got opener Kyle Mayers early but a 107-run stand between King and Pooran for the second wicket off just 72 balls pretty much ended the contest. The series was tied 2-2 going into the match with India having fought back from being 2-0 down. Pooran eventually became Tilak Varma's first international wicket. However, King then set up a 52-run stand off 28 balls with Shai Hope. Hope finished the game off with a six off the last ball of the 18th over. Pooran was in destructive form throughout the series scoring 176 runs in five matches at a strike rate of 141.93. He was declared player of the series for his efforts.
Need to improve batting depth, says Dravid
{{/usCountry}}India got opener Kyle Mayers early but a 107-run stand between King and Pooran for the second wicket off just 72 balls pretty much ended the contest. The series was tied 2-2 going into the match with India having fought back from being 2-0 down. Pooran eventually became Tilak Varma's first international wicket. However, King then set up a 52-run stand off 28 balls with Shai Hope. Hope finished the game off with a six off the last ball of the 18th over. Pooran was in destructive form throughout the series scoring 176 runs in five matches at a strike rate of 141.93. He was declared player of the series for his efforts.
Need to improve batting depth, says Dravid
{{/usCountry}}India head coach Rahul Dravid admitted after the match that the team needs to work on its batting depth. "Our one-day team is really different to the squad that we had here. But yeah, it didn't allow us the flexibility to change the combinations a little bit," Dravid told reporters. "But going forward, we've got to look at certain areas in which we can get better. Finding depth in our batting has been an area we're trying to address. As these games go on, scores are becoming bigger ... even the West Indies had Alzarri Joseph coming in at number 11 and he can hit a mean ball. You have sides that have depth. We've got some challenges on that front," the former India captain said.