BENGALURU: Riding on captain Rohit Sharma’s half-century and Dinesh Karthik’s blazing cameo, India thrashed West Indies by 68 runs on Friday in the 1st T20I to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
After Nicholas Pooran won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first, Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav cracked 44 runs for the first wicket before the latter fell to left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein. Shreyas Iyer was also dismissed in the next over as India were reduced to 45-2.
Rohit continued to gallop with gusto as he unfurled a string of boundaries and two sixes. The right-hander held the Indian innings together as he added 43 runs with Rishabh Pant – whose contribution was only 12 – for the fourth wicket. He was eventually nipped out by Jason Holder for 64 in the 15th over.
As he has done many times in the recent past, Karthik once got into the groove and reeled off a rollicking cameo in the end. The right-hander smashed 41 off just 19 balls and remained unbeaten. Due to his blistering innings in the end, India scored 63 runs in the last 5 overs and reached 190-6 in 20 overs.
Hosein bowled with exceptional control and gave away only 14 runs in his 4 overs.
In response, the hosts never looked in the hunt as their batsmen failed to build any sturdy partnerships. Many of their batsmen – Shamarh Brooks, Pooran, Rovman Powell, Kyle Mayers and Shimron Hetmyer – took starts but none of them converted them into a substantial score. Mayers blitzed 15 runs off 6 balls to lend a scorching start but his impetuosity got the better of him as he was snared by the left-arm medium-pacer Arshdeep Singh in the second over.
West Indies did not recover from his dismissal and were strangled by spin duo R Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi, both of whom snapped up two wickets each, in the middle overs. After Pooran was prised out by Ashwin for 18 in the 9th over, the hosts gave up the chase and did not show any intent to win.
In the end, they ended with 122-8 in 20 overs and fell to a 68-run defeat. The second match of the series will be played on Monday.
Before the T20I series, India had whitewashed the hosts in the ODI series and won it 3-0.