Thanks to brilliant effort by bowlers and great batting by West Indies batsmen led to an easy 8 wicket win in the 2nd T20I match played at Greenfield Stadium, Thirvanthupram on Sunday.
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard won the toss and decided to field first. Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma got the team off to a cautious start. Pierre got the breakthrough dismissing Rahul for 11. Rahul and Rohit added 24 runs in 3.1 overs. Shivam Dube who was promoted at number 3 struggled for initial balls. At the end of six overs, India were 42 for 1.
After the power play overs, Dube played with positive intent and took on West Indies bowlers. Jason Holder got the wicket of Rohit for 15. The Indian captain Virat Kohli came to the crease and was struggling for timing. Dube showed his power hitting and made the batting look easy to reach his maiden T20 fifty off 27 balls. When things looked good for India, Hayden Walsh Jr dismissed Dube for 54. Kohli and Dube added 41 runs for the 3rd wicket. Hyaden Walsh Jr dismissed Dube and Shreyas Iyer in quick succession. Rishabh Pant played some lovely strokes which put pressure on West Indies bowlers. Kesrick Williams dismissed Indian captain Virat Kohli for 19. The West Indies bowlers did not allow Indian batsmen to score runs easily in death overs and restricted them to 170 for 7 in 20 overs.
Chasing down 171 runs to win, Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis started off to a cautious note. Lendl Simmons was dropped by Washington Sundar while Lewis was dropped by wicketkeeper Risbabh Pant in the same over. After both were dropped, it was an aggressive batting by Lewis. At the end of 6 overs, West Indies were 41 for 0.
Lewis and Simmons continued to attack the Indian bowlers with aggressive intent. Washington Sundar struck finally to dismiss Evin Lewis for 40 off 35 balls. West Indies openers added 73 runs for the opening wicket. Shimron Hetymer came to the crease and made the batting look easy with big strokes. In attempt to hit another six, Hetymer was brilliantly caught at boundary by Virat Kohli. Hetymer and Simmons added 39 runs for the 2nd wicket. Nicolas Pooran came to the crease and made the batting look easy. Simmons reached his fifty off 38 balls. Pooran and Simmons raced towards with ease smashing Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to all parts of the ground. Simmons and Pooran added unbeaten 61 runs for the 3rd wicket. West Indies won the match by 8 wickets to level the series.
West Indies 173 for 2 in 18.3 overs (Lendl Simmons 67*, Evin Lewis 40, Nicolas Pooran 38*, Washington Sundar 1/26) beat India 170 for 7 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 54, Rishabh Pant 33*, Hayden Walsh Jr 2/28, Kesrick Williams 2/30) by 8 wickets.
The 3 match T20I series is levelled at 1-1. The final and deciding T20I match will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 11th December.
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