WI vs IND | Twitter reacts as West Indies hold nerves in tight run-chase to outplay India by 4 runs

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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West Indies proved to be the more clinical team at the Brian Lara Stadium on Thursday as they kept India from chasing a subpar 150 to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell shone with the bat for the hosts while Jason Holder turned things around with the ball.

After skipper Rovman Powell chose to bat first, Brandon King gave the West Indies a good start by racing to 28 off 19 while Kyle Mayers struggled at the other end. However, the duo's tirade did not last long as Yuzvendra Chahal had trapped both LBW in the fifth over to suddenly flip the momentum in India's favour. The in-form Nicholas Pooran restored some parity by smacking a six and a four off his first three balls and continued with his explosive brand of stroke-making even as Johnson Charles was dismissed on the other end. It took some brilliant middle-overs bowling from Kuldeep Yadav to slow down Pooran's rampage and the in-form batter eventually succumbed for 41 in the 15th over to leave West Indies reeling at 96/4. Nevertheless, Rovman Powell took control of proceedings thereon and singlehandedly carried the hosts to a competitive total of 149/6, managing to tally 48 runs for himself at an excellent strike rate of 150.

In response, Akeal Hossein got the better of Shubman Gill in a brilliant opening spell while Obed McCoy took care of the other opener Ishan Kishan, skittling India down to 28/2 in the fifth over. Suryakumar Yadav failed to replicate the feats that have seen him placed at number one in the T20I batting rankings, as debutant Tilak Verma thoroughly outplayed him at the other end with some outrageous stroke-making to ensure the scoreboard keeps ticking. Eventually, SKY departed for a scratchy run-a-ball 21 in the 10th over and Varma followed suit 10 balls later, albeit after a much more commendable 22-ball 39, with India still requiring 73 off the last nine overs. Skipper Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson felt to get on top of the tricky pitch as well but just when the pressure was mounting, they managed to eke out 13 runs in the 15th over to again bring down the equation to a comfortable 37 off 30 balls. However, the narrative flipped yet again in the ensuing over when Jason Holder sent Pandya packing while Mayers executed a brilliant run-out three balls later to dismiss Samson. Thereon, it was all one-way traffic as despite a some boundaries by Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh, they closed out the run-chase comfortably by four runs.

What a shame!

LOL

After quite a long time

Correct

Another one

India missed him

Never

Hardik's nightmare

Loss

India needed Rinku

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