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5 things India did wrong to lose the one-off T20I

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10 July 2017

India lost the one-off T20I against the West Indies last night. Badly. It was the World T20 semi-final all over again as the Men in Blue put up a below par score that was still worth giving a fight, and one West Indian just got stuck into the visitors’ bowling and decimated.

Evin Lewis’ 125 off just 62 balls was just too hot for India’s bowlers to handle and in a flurry of dropped catches, missed stumpings, poor bowling and Virat Kohli shouting, India sunk. We look at five reasons where India remained below par in the T20.

It is one of the funniest things in cricket to see fielders tumble around each other. It is less fun when you look up, see your home team capitulating. Twice in two overs, off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav, Evin Lewis offered high catches.

In the first instance, Mohammad Shami and Virat Kohli did not call clearly, and as the white orb descended, Kohli waited under it, while Shami charged into it, missed it, tumbled and looked sheepishly at his captain.  Kohli was not amused, but he rarely is.

The second instance was at the boundary, where Dinesh Karthik missed a similarly high chance, rolling around like a joyful pig in the mud after missing it on the second chance. It is noteworthy that the wind was making the ball hoop around in the air, but it was a generally appalling display in the field. One or two run outs were missed as well.

Dhoni was poor behind the stumps in yesterday’s game. His shoddy performance saw two relatively easy stumpings fluffed and a bye, not that that changed the course of the game much. He seemed deflated behind the stumps, missing opportunities he would not have in any other game. His batting was unremarkable, scoring 2 off 2 before edging off to short fine leg.

It was an off day for Dhoni to say the least (which loses games if you are the finisher and the wicketkeeper). It was met with the shock and calm commentary of Harsha Bhogle, who himself seemed content to make excuses for Dhoni’s game. We see what you did there, Mr. Bhogle, sticking by your team so no more Bollywood stars get you fired.

Three spin bowlers on a bouncy flat wicket? I understand that Hardik Pandya got injured right before the game, but that’s ridiculous. What did you expect on a smallish ground with a flat pitch and Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels?

This isn’t the West Indies side that got bullied for two weeks, Team India. These guys will destroy anything a touch full and eat spinners like Ashwin and Jadeja for lunch in the shorter formats. Let’s face facts, Ashwin and Jadeja are waning powers in the shorter formats and are liabilities.(Agencies)

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