Indian bowlers were mercilessly hammered in their maiden international cricketing foray in the USA as West Indies’s opening batsman Evin Lewis thrashed Indian bowlers by playing in his second ever T20I, he recorded a 48-ball ton that had nine sixes and five fours in it.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to insert the opposition in backfired as the West Indies batsmen rained 13 fours and 21 sixes on a flat pitch at Lauderhill ground.
None of the Indian bowlers came out unscathed as they were butchered by the batting pyrotechnics of the world champions.
The earlier highest number of sixes in an innings was 19 hit by Netherlands against Ireland in 2014.
Today’s 245 for 6 was the third highest innings total behind 260/6 scored by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 2007 and 248/6 by Australia against England in 2013.
This was the highest ever T20 International score against India by any team, surpassing the 219 for 4 by South Africa in Johannesburg in March 2012.
Rookie opener Evin Lewis, playing in his only second T20 International, hit 100 (49 balls; 5x4, 9x6) and shared 126 runs for the first wicket from a mere 9.3 overs with Johnson Charles (79 of 33 balls; 6x4, 7x6) led the mauling of Indian bowlers.
Lewis also hit the fifth fastest hundred as he reached the milestone in just 48 balls.
At one time, it looked like the West Indians would run away with the highest ever T20 International score as they reached 199 for 1 at the end of 15 overs but India made fine a comeback in the final five overs, conceding just 46 runs and taking five wickets in the process.
Except for Ravichandran Ashwin (0/36), all the other five bowlers went for more than 10 runs an over. Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah got two wickets each while conceding 39 (from 3 overs) and 47 runs (from 4 overs) respectively.
The beginning was ominous for India as Mohammed Shami gave away 17 runs in the first over itself with Charles smashing him for a six and two boundaries. Shami was taken off and Bumrah was introduced in the third over.
The West Indies continued to score at a brisk pace with Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceding 20 runs in his first two overs.
Bumrah was also taken to task with Lewis hoisting him for two sixes and a four to amass 18 runs from the fifth over.
The Caribbeans reached to their 50 in just 4.1 overs and the Indians were left to bring in Ashwin into the attack in the sixth over.
(With inputs from PTI)
