Prince Yadav might not have contributed with any wicket in his four overs, but the Delhi pacer will be remembered for his 13-run innings towards the end of the Indian innings at the Holkar Stadium in Indore against West Indies in the third T20I on Sunday.
India were 210/9 after 19 overs with getting a single off the first ball he faced in the penultimate over. With Mayank Yadav at the other end, Prince’s job was to contribute as many runs as possible in the final six balls. The 24-year-old did just what the doctor ordered.
The right-hander starts the final over with a boundary off Shamar Joseph, before playing a cheeky scoop over Shai Hope at short fine leg for the second boundary, a shot that took the likes of , Kuldeep Yadav and in the Indian dugout by surprise.
Prince got his third of the over, in the next ball as India were all out for 223 in 20 overs. “Even Prince coming and playing that cameo at the end, those were useful runs, I felt,” Indian captain Shreyas Iyer said after the host’s 14-run victory over West Indies.
Little did Prince know that he achieved a rare feat after more than a decade, batting at no.10. His three boundaries put Prince in an elite list of Indian batters batting at no.10 or no.11 to hit three or more boundaries in a T20I. The last time an Indian achieved the feat was former spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in 2011.
Former India pacer S Sreesanth was first to achieve the milestone, when he smashed four boundaries against New Zealand in Johannesburg in 2007 in a losing encounter, during a Group E clash of the inaugural T20 World Cup. Prince’s feat came 19 years after Sreesanth’s effort.
Arshdeep Singh and spinner Naman Dhir shared five wickets as India beat West Indies to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Singh took 3/44, and Dhir returned 2/39 as West Indies was restricted to 209/7 in the chase of 224. Earlier, earlier hit 69 off 30 balls, including five sixes, as India posted 223 after West Indies opted to field in Indore.
West Indies beat India in the second T20 by six wickets in Ranchi on Friday after its highest successful T20 run chase. India won the series opener by eight wickets in Lucknow.
