Going into the decider, India needed someone to stand up, lead from the front and that someone in 2019 was Rohit Sharma, in most of the games. The real test for this young team was when Rohit Sharma failed, and he did today.
What followed was some great batting from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Iyer managed to keep up his great form when it comes to hitting sixes, he had five today in his 62. KL Rahul, on the other hand, had seven fours for his 52. The duo took India to 175 and also thanks to the cameo from Manish Pandey at the end, who scored 22* off 13.
Chasing the total, India had Deepak Chahar picking up two wickets early in the innings. This did not stop Naim or Mithun to build a good partnership in the middle and the visitors looked like they were all set for an excellent series victory, thanks to Naim’s 81 off 48.
India suddenly turned the tables on with Shivam Dube coming to the party when it was needed by picking up three crucial wickets. Deepak Chahar then joined him to grab four more wickets to finish it off with six wickets, giving away only seven runs. He also had hattrick becoming the third Indian to pick up one in 2019, in men’s cricket.
Also, Deepak Chahar now holds the best T20I figures for men’s cricket. He grabbed all the awards today, player of the match, player of the series.
Possibly, he knew it already that it was going to be his day. Here is his last tweet.
Sanjay Manjrekar reacts after being removed from BCCI commentary panel