India v/s West Indies T20 in USA: Top 7 talking points including the Stuart Binny mystery

On Saturday and Sunday, India and West Indies showed USA audience just how engaging cricket can be as they contrived to play one of the epic T20 matches of all times. In the first game, West Indies and India scored a total of 489 in 40 overs, which really makes the cricketers who scored 250 in 50 overs look like lazy bums. In the second match, Dhoni’s bowlers stepped up to restrict West Indies to a miserly 143 but the rains played spoilsport and prevented India from chasing down an almost sure-shot target and level the series.

Here are some talking points from the two (well one-and-a-half matches):  

IPL bonanza for Lewis and Charles

Evin Lewis (AFP) 

As an Indian watching cricket during the era of the Indian Premier League, we get to feel a small measure of the joy emperors and colonialists felt when they saw someone or something valuable in days of yore. The sheer financial might of the IPL draws players from across the world, and you know that it would probably have been on Evin Lewis and Johnson Charles’ minds as they eviscerated the Indian bowlers.

Lewis who notched up a century was particularly brutal on Stuart Binny who was hit for five sixes in an over, and Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri were left looking for new words to describe the shots. Sadly, they just ended up resorting to comparisons to Yuvraj Singh's six sixes what felt like the male anatomy.

While Charles was an unsold player in the last edition of the IPL, and Lewis wasn’t even considered, you can bet teams will be lining up to sign these two stars.

The mysterious presence of Stuart Binny

Stuart Binny with his wife Mayanti Langer Pic Courtesy (Criclife.com) 

There are some things in modern India that are simply inexplicable. Like why did Nargis Fakhri date Uday Chopra? Or how did Vijay Goel get picked to be the sports minister? A similar inexplicable ministry, is Stuart Binny’s presence in the Indian line-up.

He can’t bowl, he can’t bat and we’ve seen nothing special from him on the field either, other than his mind-blowingly hot wife Mayanti Langer who has the worst job in the world, as she did the pre and post-match coverage along with 'T20 legends' like VVS Laxman and Deep Dasgupta.  

On Saturday, Binny was given just one over, in which Lewis dispatched him for five consecutive sixes, and was on the verge of equalling Yuvraj’s six sixes record when fate intervened. We still wonder how the ‘must you embarrass at work every day’ conversation will go when he finally goes home.

A new hero is born – KL Rahul

KL Rahul (AFP) 

While the Indian batting line-up faced a daunting task, what was remarkable was the precision with which they chased the target. While earlier, precision meant Virat Kohli taking apart the bowlers like they were made of hot butter, Kohli’s uncharacteristic dismissal set the stage for KL Rahul who really showed how good he was with an innings high on quality, which was a mix of technique and power-hitting that took India within touching distance of the target.

Dhoni does the unthinkable

In life there are fewer certainties than MS Dhoni finishing off an innings. In fact, most of us probably think that the chances of the sun rising from the West is more realistic than Dhoni buckling under pressure. But somehow, needing just 8 runs from the final over, and 2 from the final ball, MS Dhoni managed to misread his friend DJ Bravo’s delivery and got caught at short third man. While it was a remarkably clever delivery from Bravo, we expect much better from Dhoni. Not that this means it’s the end of Dhoni as hardcore Gangulians went berserk but come one man, it was once. Even Michael Jordan probably missed a free-shot once in his career.

Champion Bravo for the win

Dhoni and Bravo (AFP) 

As annoyed as some of us have become with Bravo’s constantly dancing to his Champion song which seems to be the go-to song for every freaking thing. But Bravo was sublime in the match, pulling off a stunning catch earlier but it was his last over that really did the unthinkable. On a day when bowlers looked in danger of becoming extinct like dodo birds, DJ Bravo almost got Dhoni out on the first ball of the last over, a deceptively slower one, which was dropped by Marlon Samuels. He also prevented a boundary when he leapt in the air to stop Dhoni’s powerful shot. All that was needed at the end was two runs off the last ball and after what seemed like an eternity, Bravo bowled a slow-cutter which Dhoni edged to Samuels who made sure he caught this time to end a remarkable T20 match.

T20 Number 2

Indian bowlers strike back

The second T-20 match saw Indian bowlers make up for their pathetic display as they got do-over the very next day. On a slower pitch, with Binny safely tucked away where no one could see him, the Indian bowlers bowled better as they prevented the West Indians from running away like they did in the first match. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah all bowled well, but it was Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra who were exceptional. Both the full-time spinners showed guile and craft to bewitch the West Indian batsmen.

Why don’t Kohli and Dhoni play Amit Mishra more?

Gone are the days when being good at just one department of the game was enough to get you in the game. While the likes of Ravindra Jadeja or Stuart Binny make the team by the virtue of being all-rounders, Mishra finds it hard to break in. Is it because he’s bad fielder or not the best batsman around? Is it because he lacks the social media following and ‘uber-cool’ factor of his colleagues? Whatever the reason, it’s hard to understand why a bowler as talented as Mishra has to sit out when his guile with the ball is superior to most of his colleagues.

All in all, there’s no denying that the USA got the best introduction they could to Indian cricket and while the sport might never reach the popularity of American sports, there’s no doubt it can reach the popularity of soccer which has become popular in Uncle Sam’s land.