Indian skipper Hardik Pandya was delighted after Team India won the fourth T20I by nine wickets at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill, Florida on Saturday to level the series 2-2. Pandya showered praise on openers Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who added a fine opening alliance of 165 runs in the run-chase of 179 runs.
Both the openers were able to hit the ground running, adding 66 runs in the Powerplay overs. Gill went on to score a fine knock of 77 runs from 47 balls as he returned back to form after three ordinary matches.
On the other hand, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a match-winning 51-ball 84 and remained unbeaten till the end. It was Jaiswal’s only second T20I game but he showed great maturity in his strokeplay.
The youngsters played at the top of their game and ticked the right boxes in the run-chase.
Pandya said in the post-match presentation, “There are more Indians here. The way they have been supporting, they’ve been coming in numbers, they make sure that we give them some entertainment. There is no doubt in their (Gill and Jaiswal) skill set. Going forward, we’ll have to take responsibility as a batting group and help out our bowlers. Bowlers win matches. If they can get you a couple of wickets, you can control the game. Shubman and Yashasvi were brilliant. The way they ran in this heat … and … making sure they finished the job, it was very pleasing to see. I like to captain how I see the game.”
Pandya added that these kinds of wins give them a lot of confidence and they will look to carry the excellent show. The all-rounder admitted that West Indies were the better team in the first two matches and they had to pull up their socks in the last two matches to make a comeback.
He added, “I like to go with my instincts. We lost two games but the first game, it was our own error, we were cruising quite well, we messed it up in the last four overs and didn’t cross the line. We didn’t do much different in the next two games. All these games gives us a lot of confidence. We had to pull up our socks and play good cricket, that’s exactly what the boys did. In T20 cricket, no one’s favorite. You have to turn up and play good cricket. You got to respect the opposition. They were 2-0 up because they played better cricket than us. Tomorrow we turn up and do exactly what we did today and hope for the best.”
The fifth and deciding T20I of the series will be played at the same venue of Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill, Florida on Sunday.
