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Rohit Sharma’s India registered a comfortable 68-run victory over West Indies in the first of five-T20I series despite experimenting with the batting lineup. In the first ever T20I at Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, Trinidad, West Indies were outclassed in all departments of the game.
Another collapse
Chasing 191, West Indies openers went all guns blazing. Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks went for the big hits but got out in the powerplay overs. Arshdeep Singh got the wicket of Mayers. Ravindra Jadeja bowled in the powerplay overs and got the wicket of Jason Holder who got promoted up the order. Brooks got out in the powerplay overs as well. They managed 42/3 in the powerplay overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar came back well in the powerplay overs and bowled a wicket-maiden.
In the middle overs, West Indies batting order imploded. Skipper Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer and Akeal Hosein got starts but struggled to get boundaries and threw their wicket away. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi took advantage of the situation and dominated the Caribbean batters.
At one point, they feared getting bundled out. The ninth-wicket partnership between Keemo Paul and Alzarri Joseph helped the hosts play out the rest of the overs and get to 122/8. Apart from Ashwin, Bishnoi, Arshdeep got two wickets as well.
Surprise move
Earlier, Pooran won the toss and opted to field first. The Indian team management surprised everyone by sending Suryakumar Yadav as opener. Surya played a few unorthodox shots and scored 24 runs off just 16 deliveries. Left-arm spinner Akeal provided the breakthrough with his wicket in the fifth over. After his wicket, just one run was scored in the powerplay overs as Shreyas Iyer got out for a four-ball duck.
Rohit hits fifty
Batting at no.4, Rishabh Pant played few too many reckless shots and got out after scoring 14 off 12 deliveries. Meanwhile, Rohit played a few exceptional shots. He got to his half-century in the 12th over with a boundary off Joseph. Holder got the big wicket of Rohit in the 15th over. He scored 64 runs off 44 deliveries including seven fours and two sixes.
Karthik special
Jadeja got a few boundaries but got out before the slog overs. Dinesh Karthik took his time and then accelerated. In the final two overs, he broke free and remained unbeaten for 41 off 19 deliveries. Karthik hit four fours and two sixes in his cameo. On the other hand, Ashwin scored 13 runs off 10 deliveries. Despite losing too many wickets in middle overs, India posted 190/6.
