Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer stitched 48 runs for the fifth wicket as India defeated West Indies by six wickets in the first T20I in Kolkata on Wednesday.
With that West indies became the first team in the world to lose 80 T20 Internationals matches (2006-2022). they Played 158 matches and win Only 66 matches. But Since 2007 they able to Win Two T20 World Cups ( 2012/ 2016), West indies are the only team in the World do that so far.
Suryakumar unbeaten on 34(18) while Iyer scored 24(13) as India chased down the 158-run target with seven balls to pace.
After inviting West Indies to bat first the West indies piled 157/7 in 20 overs.
In Reply, India raced to 50 in the first 5 overs. Ishan Kishan was slow off the blocks but he picked up his pace after Rohit Sharma smashed Odean Smith for 22 runs in one over.
Their stand came to an end on 64 as Roston Chase got the wicket of Rohit (40 off 19).
Following his dismissal, India lost three wickets in quick succession in the form of Virat Kohli, Kishan and Rishabh Pant.
However, another impressive show by Suryakumar helped India close the contest comfortably in the end.
Earlier in the first innings, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Brandon King to give an early breakthrough.
Then, Kyle Mayers and Nicholas Pooran dealt in boundaries to take the visitors past 50 inside 7 overs.
However, Yuzvendra Chahal snapped that stand by dismissing Kyle Mayers on 34 At the halfway stage, WI reached 71/2.
The scoreline became 74/4 after 11 overs as debutant Ravi Bishnoi bagged two wickets in the same over- dismissing Powell (2) and Chase (4).
Kieron Pollard, who had recovered sufficiently from the knee niggle that had forced him out of the last two ODIs, also did his bit, scoring an unbeaten 24 off 19 balls.
He had slid down the order to deny India’s wristspinners a favourable match-up. Instead, Akeal Hosein was bumped up to No.6, but he could manage just 10 off 12 balls.
A couple of overs later, Deepak Chahar came back to scalp Akeal Hosein’s wicket.
Pooran breathed life into the innings as he notched up a brilliant half-century.
Pooran and Pollard hauled West Indies closer to 160.
Pooran was then dismissed by Harshal Patel on 61, who also bowled a Spurred final over to help India restrict West Indies to 157/7 in 20 overs.
Kieron Pollard, West Indies skipper says:
“Between overs 6-15 we only scored 46 in 9 overs and if we had 18-20 more runs during that phase it would have been competitive.
After six overs they were in front, but I thought the bowlers and fielders did really well to pull things back. Different times calls for different things, they have quality bowlers and we have to play it as we see it.
The guys are working hard to get things right and again it’s just a matter of setting it up properly. The ball was wet and the bowlers were bowling high full tosses and I wanted them to have a fair share to execute. Having said that, it was a very, very good game of cricket.”