Trinidad| Plagued by multiple issues and delays, when India finally took on the Nicholas Pooran-led West Indies sie, half of the country was already asleep and they had very little idea of what unfolded in the Caribbean Islands. In this five-match T20I series, India stunned the hosts in what can be counted as a dominant performance. The Rohit Sharma-led Indian T20I side was certainly looking to achieve the same fate that Shikhar Dhawan had with the ODI team, but to everybody's surprise, the Caribbean team brought their A-game to the table and left the Indian team stunned.
Nicholas Pooran won the toss and opted to field first. He emphasized on using his and his team's experience and he certainly lived up to his words. When Rohit Sharma came to open the Indian innings with SKY aka Suryakumar Yadav, everybody thought that the men in blue can easily replicate their exploits from the first match, but Windies fast bowler Obed McCoy had some very different plans in his mind.
Jolting India's hope, McCoy struck on the first ball and claimed the prized wicket of the Indian captain Rohit Sharma. With all his current batting woes, Shreyas Iyer joined Surya in the middle. Suryakumar Yadav who has always been looked upon with such regards looks to be far from his best lately as he could just score 11 off 6 deliveries and fell prey to 25-year-old McCoy.
The West Indian bowler was on such a roll that he did not let any Indian batsmen including the likes of Pant, Iyer, and Karthik trouble the scorers. Baroda-based Hardik Pandya tried to provide some respite to the Indian innings and his knock of 31 off 31 deliveries helped India reach a respectable total of 138.
Seeing the inconsistency that West Indies have with their batting, India still had some hope with the ball, but it was just not their day. Opener Brandon King came out and started tonking the ball to all parts of the ground. With a meager total of 138 runs on board, King played freely and played a vital knock of 68 off 52 deliveries. India tried to pull things back as they had the West Indies team reeling on 107/4, but wicketkeepr batsman Devon Smith ensured that he sees West Indies home.
As the series stands level at 1-1, it will be interesting to see how India goes ahead with their slam-bang style of cricket, especially after it has backfired on them.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh
West Indies Playing XI: Kyle Mayers, Brandon King, Nicholas Pooran(c), Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Devon Thomas(w), Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Odean Smith, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy
