With the series hanging in the balance, both West Indies and India were poised for an enthralling contest. The series had witnessed a slew of exceptional individual displays, and the onus rested on the players to excel in the decisive match. Amidst several standout performances, such as Surya Kumar Yadav’s splendid 61, Pooran’s swift and impactful 47, and Shepard’s astute execution in the death overs, it was Akeal Hosein’s impactful spell and Brandon King’s impeccably paced innings that turned out to be pivotal. Their contributions culminated in West Indies clinching a historic triumph – their first-ever T20 bilateral series victory against India. This victory also signifies their first series win against India in a span of 17 years.

In the following article, we will assess Akeal Hosein’s pitch map to analyze his landing areas and delve into Brandon King’s repertoire of shots.

Akeal Hosein’s Powerplay Prowess

Also read: India Equalizes Series Against West Indies on the Back of Kuldeep’s Outstanding Form and a Youthful Opening Duo – Cricket Winner

While Romario Shepard, with his cunning variations picked up 4 wickets in the death overs, it was Akeal Hosein’s early wickets which were body blows for team India. The latter has been a common sight for the West Indies during powerplays, consistently showcasing his skills. He’s bagged 13 wickets at an economy of 8.1 in this phase, which is quite good. His strength lies in his arm ball, a delivery that moves in the air, playing with the batsmen’s minds, even though he doesn’t rely heavily on variations.

He generally bowled more to the right-handed batters, but he started off his spell against the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal. He kept things very tight and bowled a stump-to-stump line. While he bowled a bit fuller initially, the batter was comfortable with this length. Hosein immediately changed his length and bowled it a bit shorter on the off stump to get some turn, which ultimately reaped the reward.

To the right handers, he focused more on the good length (42%) regions in order to generate a bit of turn and bounce. But he indeed possessed a wonderful variation with his lengths when he trapped Gill leg before wicket by bowling a slightly fullish length delivery, inducing him to the sweep shot. With respect to his variations, he bowled 9 arm balls and picked up his 2 wickets while he bowled 13 stock length deliveries with no wickets, but he maintained a firm grip on the scoring rate.

Brandon King’s impeccably paced knock

Brandon King has been a regular for West Indies in the last few years. He usually provides good starts, but he has issues in converting them into big scores. But his recent knock against India was a much-needed knock and it couldn’t have come at a better instance.

The graph above illustrates King’s shot selection throughout his innings, revealing a well-rounded array of strokes. Notably, his standout shot was the front foot drive, contributing around 31% of his total runs. Furthermore, he demonstrated competence in employing the front foot slog (15%) and exhibited an intent to advance down the track against spinners, resulting in approximately 17% of his runs being garnered through this approach.

While the majority of his shots were executed from a front-foot position, he also effectively employed back-foot play, accounting for nearly 25 percent of his total runs scored using this technique. Brandon King’s only challenge arose when facing the Chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, as he managed to accumulate just 5 runs from the 11 deliveries. This is an aspect which he will be aiming to address and improve upon in the future.