India won the second T20 match and took a lead of 2-0 against West Indies. A rain-curtailed match saw Indian winning the match by 22 runs.
Rohit Sharma shines again
Winning the toss Indian opted to bat first and Indian openers provided a solid start.
Rohit Sharma struck a brilliant 67, as he concentrated on building partnerships first with Shikhar Dhawan (23) and then with skipper Virat Kohli (28). He was the dominant player in both partnerships, scoring 39 off the 69 runs for the first wicket, and then smashed 32 runs in a partnership of 48 with Kohli. Now Rohit Sharma has the most number of sixes hit by any player in T20 international.
He hit three sixes along with six boundaries and surpassed Chris Gayle (105) to register his number of 107 sixes. Once Rohit was gone his teammates followed at regular intervals. Krunal Pandya’s 20 off 12 brought back some respect to India’s total and finally they could manage 167/5.
West Indies Bowling
Sharma was on the crease till 14th over and the match was totally on India’s side. But then the Windies were back on track as Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas ran through the top order and picked two wickets each to stop Indian run-fest. Keemo Paul earlier gave the initial blow by picking up Shikhar Dhawan in the 8th over.
West Indies Batting
West Indies top order failed miserably as they got the worst possible start. Rovman Powell was the sole fighter from the team who took the charge from 8/2 in the 3rd over and single-handedly tried to chase it down.
The revised target for West Indies was 121 in 15.3 overs. Powell staged a 34-ball 54 and got a partner in Nicholas Pooran who added 19 off 34. Powell was devastating and hit six fours and three maximums in the process. But that was not sufficient and thanks to the tremendous effort by Indian bowlers. West Indies innings was ended on 98/4.
Rise of Krunal Pandya
Indian bowlers had a great outing. Bhuvneshwwar Kumar sent Evin Lewis back home with a stunning diving catch off his own bowling. Sunil Narine tried to break the shackles but failed in front of Washington Sundar.
The 76-run partnership between Powell and Pooran could have been dangerous when the elder Pandya fooled them with his left-arm spin. The all-rounder struck in his third over as he sent back both Powell and Pooran in the same over. Bad lighting and rain forced the play meanwhile and DLS came into discussion.
Unfortunately for the Windies, the game couldn’t be resumed. Kieren Pollard and Hetymer were otherwise there on the crease and anything was possible in the slogs, especially because it was a Twenty 20 encounter. India became lucky and got the reward for their good performance in all the departments. West Indies fell short of 22 runs from the required target needed to be reached in 15.3 overs.
Brief scores
India 167 for 5 in 20 oves (Rohit Sharma 67, Virat Kohli 28; Sheldon Cottrell 2-25, Oshane Thomas 2-27) beat West Indies 98/4 in 15.3 overs (Rovman Powell 54; Krunal Pandya 2-23) by 22 runs (D/L Method)