Another awful show with the bat cost the visitors West Indies yet another game in their ongoing tour of India. A complete batting failure from the visitors helped hosts India take an easy win in the first T20I played at the Eden Gardens on Sunday (Oct 04).
After being put into bowl first, West Indies had an aggressive start scoring 16 runs in the first two overs. And since then, their batting card only progressed downwards! In the 4th over of their innings, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer got involved in a bizarre run-out where both the batsmen ended up at the same end. And with many such simple wickets, West Indies finished with just 109 for 8 in their 20 overs.
Chasing a low score, India lost both their openers – Dhawan and Rohit – cheaply. Pant once again perished trying to be aggressive. Rahul and Pandey got the starts but couldn’t convert them. Dinesh Karthik (unbeaten on 31*) was involved in two good partnerships for the 5th and the unbeaten 6th wicket to get India over the line comfortably.
Krunal Pandya had a dream debut for India. With the ball, he conceded just 15 runs in his 4 overs and also picked up the wicket of his Mumbai Indians team mate Kieron Pollard. And his unbeaten 9-ball 21* runs with the bat helped India win the game with 5 wickets in hand and 13 balls to spare. Kuldeep Yadav won the Man of the Match award!
With this 5-wicket victory at the Eden Gardens in the first T20I on Sunday (Nov 04), India now take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series. The second T20I of the series will be played in Lucknow on Tuesday (Nov 06). Indian youngster Khaleel Ahmed is developing an unnecessary aggressive attitude of staring at a batsmen after bowling every delivery as if the demerit point and the official warning he bagged in the 4th ODI against West Indies was not enough. I feel this is unnecessary for any player on the field unless you want to get into a fight.
Brief Scores:
India -110/5 in 17.5 overs (Dinesh Karthik – 31*, Krunal Pandya – 21* – Carlos Brathwaite – 2/11, Oshane Thomas – 2/21) beat West Indies -109/8 in 20 overs (Fabian Allen – 27, Shai Hope – 14, Kuldeep Yadav – 3/13, Krunal Pandya – 1/15) by 5 wickets.
Keep reading ReadScoops.com for similar updates on the Windies tour of India.
