India on Sunday defeated West Indies by 22 runs under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. This was their second win in the T20 match in as many days against West Indies. On Saturday, the Indian team had defeated the hosts by four wickets in a low-scoring match.
Rohit Sharma was the star batsman for India as he scored 67 runs in 51 deliveries. His knock included six boundaries and three sixes. Also contributing to India’s total of 167 runs in 20 overs were skipper Virat Kohli (28 runs), Shikhar Dhawan (23 runs) and Krunal Pandya (20 runs). Krunal also picked up two wickets, paving his way for the Man Of The Match award.
In reply, West Indies scored 98 for four in 15.3 before the bad weather forced the match to be called off. The hosts needed to score 121 runs at that stage to be able to defeat India.
Reacting to his side’s second win in as many days, Kohli said, “We had a really clinical game. The pitch was always going to be good to bat on first. We set up a good foundation and had a good finish to get to 165. The pitch slowed down considerably in the second half of our innings. Winning the first two games always gives you a chance to give opportunities to a few of the guys. Having said that, the idea is always to win.
“The way Washington has bowled against guys who come hard at the ball, he’s been outstanding. The composure he’s shown after being out for so long. He’s going to be a big factor. All in all he’s executing what he wants to perfectly at the moment.”
West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite said, “I didn’t think it went wrong to be fair. I think we had a solid enough base and so we still backed ourselves to get 70 odd, even it was a difficult task. But very well-played to Rovman to get us to that situation. I give the batting a bit more credit than yesterday. With the total we figured our line up is flexible enough, with guys like Pollard at the end to send Rovman up. Batting-wise we were a lot closer to where we want to be. In Guyana we hope to get more consistency. Consistency is what we’re looking for.”
India and West Indies will lock horns in one more T20 encounter.