WI vs IND: India dominated as it thrashes hosts in 1st T20I

• India defeated West Indies in the 1st T20I.
• India’s most of the top players were missing.
• West Indies lost the ODI series 3-0.

WI vs IND: Friday at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad, India continued their white ball dominance over the West Indies with a 68-run victory in the opening match of a five-match T20 International series.

Following a 3-0 sweep of a One-Day International series at Queen’s Park Oval, the visitors were at their most dominant when they posted an imposing 190 for six before easily restricting the home side to 122 for eight.

Rohit Sharma, one of a few first-choice players rested from the ODIs, established the basis for his team’s total with a top score of 64 off 44 balls, highlighted by seven fours and two sixes.

Dinesh Karthik then provided the batting crucial late thrust with an unbeaten 41 off only 19 balls, his unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 52 with Ravi Ashwin in the last four overs appearing to sap the West Indies’ spirit in the stifling midday heat.

Karthik’s contribution earned him the game’s most valuable player honour.

“The way we finished off the innings was great because we needed to hang in there and get more than just a par score,” said Sharma after the match in paying tribute to Karthik’s late surge.

“We also want to keep on trying different things at various stages of the innings to improve our overall game.”

Alzarri Joseph took two costly wickets, but Akeel Hosein was by far the most effective of the Caribbean bowlers.

In his four overs, he allowed only 14 runs and took the first wicket of the match when Suryakumar Yadav was bowled after dominating an opening stand of 44 runs with Sharma.

Kyle Mayers was bowled by seamer Arshdeep Singh for one of his two wickets after he and Shamarh Brooks scored 22 runs off the first eight balls of the West Indies innings in their pursuit of the target total.

Spinners Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi each took two wickets against a West Indies batting order that struggled to gather momentum.

Brooks’s 20 was the best of a dismal batting performance, leaving West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran to ponder yet another implosion by his squad, two days after losing the last ODI by 119 runs.

“We were indisciplined and we paid the price. The guys know that,” said Pooran.

“We lost wickets every time we had momentum and that cost us.”

Also Read

WI vs IND: India thrashed hosts by 119 runs in 3rd ODI

India wins the ODI series 3-0 against West Indies. They displayed a...