1st T20: India win despite Pooran’s brilliance

Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer’s unbeaten stand led India to a 6-wicket victory in the first T20I as Pooran’s 61 run knock went in vain.

The debutant Bishnoi and the pacer Harshal Patel picked up 2 wickets each.

Rohit scored a quickfire 40 runs in the start before becoming the first T20I wicket of Roston Chase.

West Indies      20 overs     157-7 

Pooran 61 (43)              Bishnoi 2-17                                                                                                                                    Myers 31 (24)                Harshal 2-37                                                                                                                                                                                         Pollard 24*(19)             Chahar 1-28

India       18.5 overs     162-4

Rohit 40 (19)                   Chase 2-14                                                                                                                                    kishan 35 (42)                 F. Allen 1-23                                                                                                                                                         S. Yadav 34*(18)             Cottrell 1-35

The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma invited West Indies to bat first after winning the toss.

Kieron Pollard came back to lead his side after suffering from a knee injury that caused him to miss the last 2 matches of the ODIs series.

Roston Chase replaced the injured Jason Holder while the legspinner Ravi Bishnoi made his debut for the Indian side. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Brendon King in the very first over of the innings.

The ball just swung away outside off that was enough to get an outside half and went into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav.

Kyle Myers and Nicholas tried to build up a partnership as both of them played some lovely shots in the powerplay.

West Indies scored 44 runs with the loss of 1 wicket from the powerplay.

Yuzvendra Chahal broke the partnership by dismissing Myers on 31 runs.

On a leg-break delivery, Myers while trying to slog-sweep it missed the ball and got LBW out.

Ravi Bishnoi’s outstanding debut performance

The debutant Ravi Bishnoi was added to the playing 11 in place of the experienced Kuldeep Yadav and he proved his selection right with his superb bowling performance.

The 21-year-old picked up two wickets in the 11th over and ended his spell with the figures of 2-17. 

Nicholas Pooran played a superb knock when the wickets were falling from the other end.

Pooran smashed 61 runs from 43 deliveries including 4 fours and 5 sixes.

After his dismissal, the skipper Kieron Pollard played an excellent cameo, in the end, to put 157 runs on the board for his side.

Pollard remained unbeaten on 24 runs including a six and two fours. 

A fiery start from Rohit

Ishan Kishan opened the innings with the skipper Rohit Sharma and they gave a bright start to the Indian innings.

Rohit Sharma gave an outstanding display of hard-hitting in the powerplay.

The Indian skipper thrashed 40 runs off 19 balls at a strike rate of 210.53.

Rohit struck 3 fours and 4 sixes before getting caught out by Odean Smith off Roston Chase at midwicket.

His partner Ishan Kishan scored 35 runs from 42 balls.

The excellent finish from SKY and Venkatesh 

India lost some quick wickets in the middle as the poor form of Virat Kohli continued.

However, Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer got India over the victory line with some excellent cameos.

Both of them played with a strike rate of over 180.00 and they shared an unbeaten 48-run stand.

Suryakumar Yadav ( 34*off 18) and Venkatesh Iyer (24*off 13) win the match for India with 7 balls to spare.