India produced a good all-round show as they went 1-0 up in this three-match T20I series. The bowlers set up the game first before Rohit Sharma’s blistering cameo at the top. A flourish at the end by Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer helped India get over the line. West Indies couldn’t find any fluency or consistency with either bat or ball and ended up paying the price.
India won the toss and opted to field first, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India an early breakthrough as he knocked over Brandon King. Nicholas Pooran and Kyle Mayes then steadied the ship, with the latter doing the bulk of the scoring while Pooran was slow to take off and took his time to settle down.
Before he did that, the leg-spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and debutant Ravi Bishnoi rocked the Windies middle-order. Chahal got rid of Mayers before Bishnoi picked up two wickets in his second over to reduce the visitors to 74/4. Akeal Hosein walked out at No. 6 as a pinch hitter, but that experiment failed as he could muster just 10 off 12 balls.
Pooran and skipper Kieron Pollard then pressed the foot on the accelerator in the last five overs to give WI a strong finish. They scored 61 runs in the last five overs and took advantage of India’s slow overrate (which meant they had to have an extra fielder inside the circle).
Chasing 158, Rohit Sharma gave India a flying start. Ishan Kishan couldn’t really find his tempo and struggled to get going. However, the skipper looked at his best as he smashed boundaries at will as India raced away to 57/0 in five overs. The introduction of the West Indian spinners slowed things down, and that resulted in Rohit’s dismissal as he walked back for a 19-ball 40.
Kishan and Virat Kohli fell in successive overs while Rishabh Pant didn’t stay long either, and India were 114/4 in the 15th over. They still needed 44 runs off 33 balls when Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer got together. And the duo motored along nicely.
They rotated strike for the first few deliveries before finding the boundaries and wrapping up the run-chase in style with seven balls to spare. Yadav was unbeaten on 34 while Iyer got himself a nice 24 not out.
Brief scores
West Indies 157/7 (Pooran 61, Mayers 31, Bishnoi 2/17, Patel 2/37) lost to India 162/4 (Sharma 40, Yadav 34*, Chase 2/14) by six wickets
