India beat West Indies by six wickets in first T20I

Hyderabad, December 6

India beat West Indies by six wickets in the first T20 International to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series here on Friday.

Put into bat, the West Indies scored 207 for 5 but India rode on superb innings from Virat Kohli (94 not out) and KL Rahul (62) to overhaul the target, scoring 209 for four in 18.4 overs.

Earlier, Shimron Hetmyer struck a quick half-century as West Indies produced a fine batting display to post a challenging 207 for 5 against India in the first T20 International of the three-match series.

An aggressive Hetmyer made 56 off 41 balls which was studded with two boundaries and four hits over the fence to hold West Indies from one end after being sent into bat.

He first added 37 runs with Brandon King (31 off 23 balls) and then shared 71 runs with skipper Kieron Pollard (37 off 19 balls) to lay the base for the West Indies total.

The Indians, however, were far from impressive on the field as Washington Sundar and Rohit Sharma dropped a few catches.

Off-spinner Washington Sundar (1/34)  leaked runs in the first over before Deepak Chahar (1/56) gave India the breakthrough in the next over, taking the wicket of Lendl Simmons, caught by Rohit Sharma in the first slip.

Evin Lewis (40 off 17) and young King then added 51 runs for the second wicket, during which they played some fearless shots, to take West Indies forward.

Lewis, in particular, was the more aggressive of the two as he dispatched to the stands any bad delivery that came his way.

He pulled Chahar for two sixes in the fourth over to make his intentions clear.

Lewis continued the onslaught and struck comeback man Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six and a four in consecutive balls. He then smoked off-spinner Sundar over the cover boundary but perished in the next ball, LBW in search of one shot too many.

Young King and Hetmyer then added 37 runs for the third wicket before the former was stumped by Rishabh Pant off Ravindra Jadeja’s (1/30) bowling.

Hetmyer, on the other hand, went about his business in a quiet fashion, hitting the bad deliveries out of the park to register his fifth half-century in T20 cricket in 35 balls.

But a double breakthrough by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2/36) in the 18^th over put a check on West Indies’ scoring rate.

Hetmyer was the first to depart in the first delivery of the 18^th over when he gave a simple catch to Rohit at deep backward square and then a ball later, Pollard was cleaned up by Chahal.

Jason Holder (24 not out off 9 balls) and Dinesh Ramdin (11 not out off 7) remained unbeaten as West Indies scored 63 runs off the last five overs. 

Brief Scores:

West Indies: 207 for 5 in 20 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 56, Evin Lewis 40; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/36).

India: 209 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Virat Kohli 94 not out, KL Rahul 62; Khary Pierre 2/44).— PTI