Pooran's 53 Takes West Indies to 181-3 Against India in 3rd T20I

Chennai, Nov 11 (PTI) Left-handed batsman Nicholas Pooran's quick-fire half-century powered West Indies to a competitive 181 for 3 in the third and final T20 International against India here on Sunday.

Pooran blasted four boundaries and as many sixes in his 25-ball unbeaten innings. His blistering 87-run unbeaten partnership in 43 balls with fellow southpaw Darren Bravo (43 off 37 balls) enabled the team move from 94 for 3 to 181 in the allotted 20 overs.

Reeling after two crushing defeats, the West Indies showed the stomach to fight as they batted with a lot more purpose at the M A Chidambaram stadium here.

Pooran, who has been on the fringes for a while and did well in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), showed why he is rated highly, batting with a lot of enterprise.

He wasn't afraid to go for his shots and also employed the switch-hit on a few occasions, including hammering a six off Chahal. Bravo offered him great support and hit a couple of big sixers of his own.

Chahal, who got a lot of turn off the wicket, was the most successful Indian bowler with 2 for 28 from his four overs, but faced the heat towards the end when Pooran and Bravo went on the attack.

Washington Sundar, who took the wicket of Denesh Ramdin (15), was the other wicket-taker.

Young pacer Khaleel Ahmed had a good start to his spell but he couldn't make much of an impression. Experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar too remained without wickets.

Earlier, openers Shimron Hetmyer (26) and Shai Hope (24) got the visitors off to a brisk start and looked to score from the word go after captain Carlos Brathwaite won the toss and elected to bat.

Hetmyer, one of the success stories of the series for the Windies, cracked the first boundary in the second over bowled by Washington Sundar. Hope too got into the act in the next over from Khaleel.

The stylish right-hander hit the first six of the innings, lofting Krunal Pandya over long-on. He perished in going for another big hit, caught on the boundary by Sundar off Yuzvendra Chahal's first ball of the match. His contribution was 24 in a first wicket partnership of 51.

Hetmyer slammed four boundaries and a six in his 21-ball 26 but was dismissed when trying to cut a delivery from Chahal. The ball bounced a little more than the southpaw expected and his shot was snaffled by Pandya.

India brought in Chahal and Sundar for Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, who have been rested while West Indies retained the XI that played in Lucknow.

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