New Delhi: The West Indies performed exceptionally well by scoring huge numbers onboard against India at the Queen’s Oval on Sunday. Shai Hope’s special century in his 100th ODI appearance and captain Nicholas Pooran’s 74 runs gave them a massive score of 312 runs. However, all the efforts of the Indies went in vain because of Axar Patel’s maiden 50-plus score. The Men in Blue won the match by 2 wickets and took a 2-0 lead in the series.
India needed 6 runs off the last three balls. Axar smashed a massive six against Kyle Mayer’s full toss delivery, winning the series. The gigantic sixer broke the 17-years-old record of former India captain, MS Dhoni.
Here’s the match-winning knock from @akshar2026. His magical batting earned him the Player of the Match title.
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Axar was successful in scoring in his maiden ODI fifty of just 27 deliveries. However, by the end of the match, he ended up in an unbeaten 64 off 35 deliveries. The all-rounder smashed 5 over-boundaries and 3 boundaries. His performance is considered to be the most by the Indian batter at No. 7 or lower in a successful ODI chase. Moreover, in 2005, Dhoni scored three sixes during the match against Zimbabwe. In 2011, Yusuf Pathan doubled Dhoni’s tally against South Africa and Ireland.
Axar stepped into the field to bat when India stood at 205 for 5, after the dismissal of Sanju Samson in the 39th over. Sanju along with Shreyas Iyer helped India recover its 99-run stand with both recurring their respective half centuries. Axar, however, managed to remain till the end and make India win.
Avesh Khan’s fall of the wicket on the final ball of the penultimate over added a bit more pressure on the Men in Blue, however, the effortless batting of Axar guided the team to win.
Axar’s performance got him the Player of the Match title. The left-handed batsman shared a note of feeling expressing his happiness in finishing victoriously.
“I think this is a special one. It came at a crucial time and also helped the team to win the series. We have done the same in the IPL. We just needed to remain calm and keep the intensity up. I was playing an ODI after close to 5 years. I would want to continue performing like this for my team,” said Axar.
