Ishan Kishan slammed his second consecutive half-century during the second ODI encounter against West Indies in Barbados on Saturday and in the process, the youngster surpassed legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar to claim a massive milestone. Kishan overtook Tendulkar as the Indian batter with the most runs as an opener in the first five ODI innings with 348 runs. In comparison, Sachin had 321 followed by Shubman Gill (320) and Kris Srikkanth (261). The youngster also equalled MS Dhoni's record of scoring back-to-back fifties as a wicket-keeper batsman – a feat that the former India skipper achieved back in 2017 against West Indies.
The batting audition of India's World Cup aspirants didn't go as per plan on a bouncy track as West Indies levelled the three-match ODI series with a comfortable six-wicket victory, riding on superb bowling efforts from Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie.
Indian team management's decision to rest skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli badly backfired as none of the middle-order batters could cope with pace, bounce and turn, getting all-out for 181 in 40.5 overs in the rain-marred second ODI, on Saturday.
In reply, West Indies survived a lively spell from Shardul Thakur (3/42 in 8 overs) before skipper Shai Hope (63 not out, 80 balls) and young Keacy Carty (48 not out, 65 balls) added 91 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket to close the game in 36.4 overs and break a chain of nine successive bilateral defeats since December, 2019.
However it was an inept batting effort that became India's undoing.
Losing five wickets for 23 runs in just 7.2 overs after opening stand of 90 between Ishan Kishan (55 off 55 balls) and Shubman Gill (34 off 49 balls) hurt India's cause after the West Indies skipper Shai Hope opted to bowl.
(With PTI inputs)