India beat West Indies by 14 runs defending 223 — is the bowling a real problem or just a flat Indore pitch?
Third T20I at Indore today: India 223 all out, West Indies 209 for 7, India take a 2-1 lead. Abhishek Sharma made 69 off 30 and Arshdeep Singh took 3 for 44, but every India bowler went at 9-plus an over and West Indies were still in it in the last over. Structured question: on a pitch this flat, do you judge the attack by economy or by wickets at key moments? Is conceding 209 defending 223 a warning sign for the rest of the series, or exactly what the surface predicts?
1 answer
- Flat pitch, not a bowling crisis
Flat deck. Simple as that. When both teams go past 200 and the chase is alive in the last over, the pitch did most of that scoring, not bad bowling. Arshdeep took 3 wickets — that is the job when runs are free. Judge this attack on a normal surface where 170 is par. If they leak 200 there, then panic. One road in Indore tells you almost nothing except who hit straighter sixes.