Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill got India off to a rollicking start in the decider of the three-ODI series. Kishan and Gill shared a 143-run opening partnership breaking a six-year-old record held by Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan. The 143-run partnership is the highest opening partnership for India against West Indies on Caribbean soil.
The previous record was created on June 23, 2017. Dhawan and Rahane shared a 132-run stand at Port of Spain. Rain played spoilsport in the ODI and the contest could not yield a result.
So far, only four Indian opening pairs have shared a 100-run partnership in West Indies. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were the first pair to achieve it in 1997. They chased down a revised target in a rain-affected match with an unbeaten 116-run partnership against Courtney Walsh-led side.
Earlier, Hardik Pandya lost the toss and India were put to bat first by Shai Hope. After the second ODI debacle, the pressure was on openers to get the visitors off to a good start. In the second over, Kishan's catch was dropped by Keacy Carty off Kyle Mayers' bowling at backward point. He was batting on just nine runs then. The wicketkeeper-batter made full use of the opportunity and got to his half-century from 43 deliveries.
In the 18th over, Gill got to his half-century from 51 deliveries. The partnership was broken by Yannic Cariah in the 20th over. Kishan went dancing down the track but could not get to the pitch of the ball. Hope did not take much time before taking off the bails. Kishan scored 77 runs from 64 balls including eight fours and three sixes.
Kishan became only the second Indian wicketkeeper-batter after former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to score a half-century in every match of an ODI series. The opener also became the sixth Indian batter to register fifty-plus score in each encounter of a three-ODI bilateral series.
List of Indian batters with fifty-plus scores in each match of three-ODI bilateral series -
Kris Srikkanth vs Sri Lanka in 1982
Dilip Vengsarkar vs Sri Lanka in 1985
Mohammad Azharuddin vs Sri Lanka in 1993
MS Dhoni vs Australia in 2019
Shreyas Iyer vs New Zealand in 2020
Ishan Kishan vs West Indies in 2023
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