405 Was Not Enough: Gill's 223 Not Out Takes India to the Second-Highest Chase in ODI History

There is a moment in most one-day games when you can put the kettle on. When a side makes 405, that moment is usually the innings break. West Indies had three centurions, a stand of 182, a hundred from 65 balls at the top, and a total that only one team in the history of the format had ever chased down. You would have forgiven their dressing room a quiet smile. Then Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma walked out, and by the time the first Indian wicket fell the score was 255.

West Indies 405 for 7. India 406 for 2 in 43.3 overs. An eight-wicket win, the same margin as Thiruvananthapuram, and I promise you that is the only thing the two matches have in common. Gill made 223 not out from 133 balls with 26 fours and eight sixes. His 200 came up in 117 balls, the fastest double-hundred the format has seen. Rohit made 101 from 75. Five men made centuries in the same ODI, which had never happened before. India lead 2-0, the series is won, and the bowlers of both sides are entitled to a long lie-down.

Let us be honest about the first half. India chose to field and conceded 405. Prasidh Krishna had Keacy Carty caught by Naman Dhir at 37, and that was the last time the bowlers felt in charge of anything. Prasidh himself bowled only five overs before a hamstring strain took him off the field in the 31st, which is why Naman Dhir ended up bowling 6.1 overs and why the analysis column looks as though somebody dropped it. Gurnoor Brar took two wickets and went for 96. Auqib Nabi's 8.5 overs cost 84. Kuldeep Yadav, with 2 for 65, was the most economical of the men who bowled ten, and there is a sentence I did not expect to write three days after his 4 for 40. To round it off, India were penalised for a slow over-rate and had to bowl the 50th over with an extra fielder inside the circle.

And then the chase, which was the strange part, because it never felt like one. The asking rate at the start was a shade over eight an over. India took 92 without loss from the powerplay, brought up the 100 in 11.2 overs and the 200 in 21.1. Here is the number I keep returning to: the third hundred took eight overs. India were 300 after 29.1, the fastest any team has got there in an ODI. West Indies, who had batted beautifully, had needed 37.2.

Rohit went past 12,000 ODI runs on his way to a hundred from 72 balls, fifty of them from the first 32, with six sixes. He was lbw to Jayden Seales for 101, his review struck down, with the score on 255 in the 27th over. At that point India still needed 151, which on most days is a contest. Virat Kohli made 29 from 19 in a stand of 65 from 35 balls, Shamar Joseph had him caught by Sherfane Rutherford at 320, and Ruturaj Gaikwad's unbeaten 31 kept Gill company through the last 86. The 400 arrived in 43 overs, joint-fastest in ODIs. It is the first time India have passed 400 batting second; their previous best chase was 362 for 1 against Australia in Jaipur in 2013.

Spare a thought, and a generous one. West Indies were without Justin Greaves, their centurion from the first match, who missed out with a calf injury, and they made 405 anyway. Campbell set it up: fifty from 29 balls, a hundred from 65, five sixes. When he was caught by Dhir off Brar in the 19th over the score was 147, and 101 of those were his. Ninety-six had come in the powerplay and the 100 was up in 10.5 overs.

Shai Hope played the captain's part. He put on 110 from 79 balls with Campbell and then 182 from 131 with Amir Jangoo, taking 49 balls over his first fifty and 41 over his second. Jangoo was the accelerator. His first fifty took 44 balls and his second took 26, and he finished with 114 from 77, with 13 fours and three sixes. Add his unbeaten 58 from the first ODI and he has 172 runs in the series for once out. West Indies were 329 for 2 with a ball of the 40th over to go.

What followed cost them more than it seemed at the time. Three wickets went down for 19 runs between the last ball of the 40th over and the second ball of the 43rd, Rutherford among them, caught first ball by the substitute Yashasvi Jaiswal off Brar. The last ten overs brought 76 for 4 — at 7.6 an over, the slowest phase of the innings, and it came when a side expects to be at its quickest. Roston Chase's 29 not out and Shamar Joseph's 14 from eight balls got them past 400 in the final over. On almost any other evening that is a detail. On this one, you wonder what 430 might have asked of India.

The bowling figures need no adjectives. Nobody went at under seven an over. Vitel Lawes, with 10 overs for 73, and Chase were the pick, and neither took a wicket. Alzarri Joseph's eight overs cost 89 and Keemo Paul's three went for 49.

As ever, we will stay with the scorecard rather than pretend we had a hand on the pitch. The scorecard says 811 runs in 93.3 overs for nine wickets, the third-highest match aggregate in ODIs, behind the 872 of South Africa and Australia in 2006 and the 825 of India and Sri Lanka in Rajkot in 2009. It says twelve bowlers were used and not one of them bowled a maiden. It says the best economy rate among bowlers who completed ten overs was Kuldeep's 6.5.

India's coach did not need a spreadsheet. Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports afterwards that there has to be more contest between bat and ball: "this is not cricket, this is only batting", he said, and a wicket like this one is "not fair for the bowlers". That is the winning coach talking, after his side had completed the second-highest successful chase in the history of the format, behind only South Africa's 435 against Australia in 2006, and posted India's ninth total of 400 or more, the most by any team. When the man who has just won says it, it is worth hearing. There have now been eight hundreds in this series, the most in any three-match ODI series, and there is still a game to play.

I have run out of ways to describe the surface, so let me describe the innings. Gill's first fifty took 38 balls and it was the slowest thing he did all night. The next fifty took 24, the one after that 27, and the fourth 28. A hundred from 62 balls, 150 from 89 — the fastest by an Indian — and 200 from 117, nine balls quicker than Ishan Kishan's 126 against Bangladesh in 2022. Of his 223, 152 came in boundaries. He batted through an opening stand of 255, then a stand of 65, then one of 86, and at no stage was he the junior partner.

The list of what 223 not out now is deserves to be read slowly. It is the highest score in an ODI chase, past Glenn Maxwell's 201 not out against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup. It is the highest by a captain in ODIs, past Virender Sehwag's 219 against West Indies in Indore in 2011. It is India's second-highest ODI score, behind Rohit's 264, and the third-highest in men's ODIs. And Gill, whose first double was 208 against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 2023, is only the second batter with more than one. The other has three, and was standing at the non-striker's end for much of the evening.

He made 110 in Thiruvananthapuram as well. That is 333 runs in the series for one dismissal. He also chose to field first. Captains have been forgiven for much worse on the strength of much less.

The headline calls held. Our preview had India as overwhelming favourites and said they could clinch the series here; they did. We described Barsapara as batting-friendly with a fast outfield, said 300-plus was achievable and that chasing was the way to go. All true, and all so understated as to be nearly useless: both sides passed 400 and the chasing side won with 39 balls in hand. We also noted that Rohit Sharma knew these conditions well. He made 101 from 75.

Now the misses, and there are several. We built the piece around Virat Kohli returning to Guwahati; he made 29 from 19 and the evening belonged to the man we cast as his foil. Our India player to watch was Kuldeep Yadav, and we said West Indies needed answers to him. They found some: 2 for 65 was India's tidiest ten-over spell, but he was no turning point this time. Our West Indies player to watch was Justin Greaves, and he did not play, out with a calf injury. Of the three who did make hundreds, Campbell and Jangoo got a passing mention and Shai Hope was not in the preview at all. We suggested West Indies would want to bowl first if they won the toss; India won it and took that option themselves. And we said Seales and Shamar Joseph had had their moments with the new ball and that attacking the powerplay was West Indies' way in. India were 92 without loss after ten overs. Those two did take India's only two wickets, in 14 overs for 130, and the first came at 255. We wrote that the only question was the margin. We did not imagine the question would be whether 405 was enough.

India have the series 2-0 and the teams go to New Chandigarh for the 3rd ODI at Mullanpur on October 3. India will be without Prasidh Krishna, whose hamstring strain rules him out; the uncapped Anshul Kamboj has replaced him in the squad. A dead rubber is a fine place to look at a new bowler, and after conceding 405 India have reason to look. The batting, with Gill, Rohit and Kohli all having made hundreds in the space of two matches, can be left alone.

West Indies go there with nothing to win but a great deal to take home. They have made 295 and 405 in this series and lost both games by eight wickets, which tells you precisely where the work is. Four wickets in two matches will not win anything. Their batters have done their part and more. One would simply like to see, in Mullanpur, a pitch that gives the men with the ball a chance to do theirs.