India defeated West Indies in the third T20I of the five-match series to pull one back on the hosts after being 0-2 down. The visitors put in a brilliant performance with both bat and ball in the must-win encounter and for the third game in the running, youngster Tilak Varma shined with the bat taking his tally of runs in the series to 139 runs. However, fans felt bad for him for not being able to notch up his second fifty in three T20Is.
He remained unbeaten on 49 as Hardik Pandya finished the match with a six in the 18th over of the innings. The India skipper has been at the receiving end of all the criticism for denying the youngster a well deserved fifty. Many reckoned that Hardik should've allowed Tilak to get to his fifty and also score the winning runs. Interestingly, a video of the same has gone viral in which Hardik can be heard telling his partner that he has to stay in the middle and finish the match.
"Tereko especially khatam karna hai, rukna hai. Gendo ka fark padta hai (You have to stay there and finish the game. The number of balls faced makes a difference," Hardik's comments were caught on the stump mic. The incident happened just before the match ended when Tilak was on 44 and Hardik on 9.
Here's the video:
As far as the match is concerned, West Indies posted 159 runs in their allotted 20 overs after opting to bat first. Rovman Powell smashed an unbeaten 40 off 19 balls while Kuldeep Yadav was the star for India picking up three wickets. The chase was straightforward for the visitors despite losing their openers early thanks to Suryakumar Yadav. The dynamic batter smashed 83 runs off just 44 balls while Tilak Varma continued to impress with an unbeaten 49.
