‘Chal Bapu ab gilli pe aaja’ - Sanju Samson's advice nearly gives Axar Patel a wicket in 3rd ODI against West Indies

Team India was clinical in the third and final ODI match against West Indies played at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Despite rain playing its part, the Men in Blue came out strong and went on to clinch the contest by a big margin of 119 (D/L method) runs to bag the three-match ODI series.

Indian bowlers were exceptional in defending a revised target of 257 runs with Mohammed Siraj giving a perfect start to the visitors after grabbing two wickets in an over followed by some excellent bowling performance by Axar Patel (one wicket), Prasidh Krishna (one wicket), Yuzvendra Chahal (four wickets) and Shardul Thakur (two wickets).

The spin duo of Chahal and Axar was excellent with the ball as they choked the flow of runs and gave nothing away. Meanwhile, India’s wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who is not known for speaking too much, was heard advising Axar to bowl at the stumps during the third over of the innings.

Axar bowled a delivery outside the off-stump, giving room to Shai Hope to free his arms and play a drive, which was stopped in the cover region. Samson was then heard as saying, “Chal Bapu abhi gilli pe wapas aa jaa (Come on Axar, now get back to bowling at the stumps).” Axar almost ended up getting a wicket on the next ball when Hope edged it to the slips, however, the ball did not carry to Shikhar Dhawan.

Talking more about the match, Team India won the toss and decided to have a bat first. Skipper Dhawan and Shubman Gill gave a solid start to their team and batter Shreyas Iyer contributed too. Gill (98*) missed his well-deserved century by just two runs thanks to a rain interruption.

In reply, West Indies were bundled out for just 137/10 as the visitors won the match by 119 runs. Gill was adjudged as the Player of the Match and Player of the Series for his excellent batting antics throughout the ODI series. Both teams will now take on each other in a five-match T20I series starting from July 29.