Dhawan, Pant clears the lines of concern before the flight to Australia

Shikhar Dhawan broke a 62- ball 92 while Rishabh Pant makes a ball 38 © AFP

In the seven rounds of the format of this series against the West Indies, Shikhar Dhawan's best effort was to score 43 to Lucknow who had fallen into the shadow of his opening His partner Rohit Sharma was a hundred years old, but Oshane Thomas, who had trolled her three times in succession since her international debut, had made the sworn enemy a nemesis.

having managed only 162 points in eight innings, the southpaw has already been sent off the home test series. the opener who was experiencing a severe drought.

For Rishabh Pant too, the series had been strange. Ax fell on him after he failed to convert his two starts into the previous ODI series, while India found itself under pressure halfway ahead of an unexpected response from Windies. As a result, Pant has spent the last two games on the bench.

Back in the eleventh of the T20I, after MS Dhoni "rested", Pant managed only the respective scores of 1 and 5 before landing in Chennai. Without the former Indian captain, who seems to have gradually abandoned the T20I format, the pressure exerted on the part of drummer-drummer Dinesh Karthik, who, in his new avatar as a finisher, had well progressed.

A tough Australian tour imminent, the dry areas of Dhawan and Pant began to take off like a sore thumb. But on Sunday, the two drummers from Delhi erased India's worry lines with their best career shots on a dramatic tour of the West Indies tour.

At the beginning of their chase, led by 182 players, it was largely Dhawan. This allowed India to make the most of the new restrictions imposed by the ball and the ground. He particularly used his feet against Khary Pierre, who crushed two left-arm tricks in the power play, and then increased the bet against the pacers. Thomas, who had made Dhawan his rabbit, and Carlos Brathwaite were treated worse – three borders each – while opening the scoring opened at 27 out of 19.

Windies briefly stopped the flow of races with a lower limit to each other. Kieron Pollard and Keemo Paul, but once Pant entered his element, nothing stopped him. For a while, Pant even made Dhawan a silent spectator as he confronted Brathwaite, Pollard and Thomas with his characteristic audacity. Reverse sweeps and ramp firing were all exposed. Watching his battering partner – and now a teammate of the IPL's upcoming season – launching himself in pursuit of bowling with such brutality, has reinstated the inhibition of a fierce pursuit, the if necessary, again.

The acceleration for Dhawan has come. about after six shots on a free Thomas balloon. Out of a total of 35 deliveries out of 27, he ran up to his half-century – the first in eight runs – in just nine more balls. Pant goes to Pollard, whose first spell costs only 11 points and 2 withdrawals, then raises his first in the 50 format with one more shot on the ramp falling just before Pierre before pbading the rope to the border.

helped India that Brathwaite, oddly enough, did not find the merit of feeding on his two left-handed spinners once the field was extended for six more outs. The visitors had six extra overs at the bank – two from Pierre and the four from Fabian Allen – but they stayed on course with their faster bowlers, much to India's delight. Dhawan and Pant both enjoyed the pace on the ball and toured the park to set up their win-win partnership of 130 which was won at 10 am and eliminated the field.

Their dismissals in closing. minutes lead to a cliffhanger that could have disappeared and erased the sheepish smiles of the Indian camp, unless one escaped from Allen to the last ball that allowed the hosts to avoid another draw

However, the result would hardly have undermined the duo's desperate confidence to end its drought and regain its place before taking the flight to Australia. More importantly, having done this when India found itself chasing a stiff target on a rotating wicket supposed to slow down further without Kohli or Rohit leading into the middle of the pitch was a powerful shot in the arm not only of the In addition, Captain Rohit was delighted to have ticked another box before the next limited badignment that will begin in 10 days in Brisbane. "It was important, from the point of view of the team, to get some points and get ready before the important Australian tour."

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