West Indies' poor run in India continues as the hosts win the first of three-T20I series at Eden Gardens, Kolkata by six wickets with seven balls to spare. Debutant Ravi Bishnoi’s economical spell including two wickets on international debut followed by cameos from skipper Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav guided India to an easy win.
Rohit goes ballistic
Chasing a total of 158, opener Rohit thrashed bowlers during fielding restrictions. He took on West Indies in-form bowler Odean Smith in the fourth over, smashing him for 21 runs from five deliveries. Roston Chase ended Rohit’s brutal onslaught. The skipper scored 40 runs from just 19 deliveries. Ishan Kishan, who opened the innings with Rohit in KL Rahul's absence played too many dot deliveries and succumbed to pressure. Chase got his wicket too off the last ball of his fourth over. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 35 runs from 42 deliveries.
Surya, Iyer finish run chase
Virat Kohli looked promising initially but could not carry on. Kohli got out after scoring 17 runs from 13 deliveries. Suryakumar released the pressure early on in his innings with few boundaries. On the other end, Rishabh Pant became Sheldon Cottrell’s first wicket in the 15th over but Suryakumar continued to hit boundaries and Venkatesh Iyer complimented him as well. While the veteran remained not out for 34 off 18 deliveries, Iyer played the perfect role of a finisher with an unbeaten 13-ball 24. Iyer finished the run chase in style by hitting Fabian Allen for a six off the fifth delivery of the penultimate over.
Pooran back in form
Earlier, Rohit won the toss and elected to field first. Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck early as he got rid of opener Brandon King in the first over itself. Kyle Mayers and wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran got the innings on track with timely strikes. Mayers contributed with 24-ball 31 in the second-wicket partnership of 47 runs. Pooran finally got some big runs under his belt as he got a boost from Rs 10.75 crore bid in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
While Pooran did the job from one end, he did not get enough support from middle-order batters. Roston Chase played a slow knock of 10-ball 4 whereas Rovman Powell got out after scoring just two runs from three deliveries. Both of them became victim of debutant leg-spinner Bishnoi. Pollard’s move to send Akeal Hosein ahead of him did not work either as he could score just 10 runs from 12 deliveries. Deepak Chahar taking his wicket turned out to be blessing in disguise as Pollard walked in and joined Pooran. The southpaw scored 61 runs from 43 deliveries including four fours and five sixes. He got out in the 18th over to Harshal Patel. Towards the end, Pollard struck a few boundaries in his unbeaten 24. Star of the ODI series for visitors, Odean Smith could not do much and got out after scoring four runs in an attempt to hit Patel out of the park on the final ball of the innings. West Indies managed to post 157/7 in 20 overs. For hosts, Bishnoi turned out to be the most economical bowler as he conceded 17 runs from his quota of four overs apart from taking two key wickets in middle overs.
