INDIA BEAT WINDIES BY FIVE WICKETS IN FIRST T20
Hosts struggle before seasoned batsman chips in with cameo
This wasn’t Rohit Sharma’s night but then Dinesh Karthik has shown in the last IPL that he too can stake claim to a piece of the Eden Gardens. With an unbeaten 31, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper anchored a chase that had run into early turbulence, first with Manish Pandey and then with India debutant Krunal Pandya who hit the winning runs in this five-wicket victory.
Debutant Oshane Thomas and Carlos Brathwaite had rocked India, chasing 110 for their first T20 win against West Indies in four years, with some express stuff on a wicket that aided such bowling. Brathwaite set up KL Rahul’s dismissal, pitching it up before tempting him with a short ball and bowling a wicket maiden in the process. He also induced a poor stroke from Rishabh Pant.
Cranking it up, Thomas got one to go through Rohit and take a slight edge and then disturbed Shikhar Dhawan’s furniture. It was 4/45 when Pant fell, worse than Windies who were 4/47, before Karthik and Pandey absorbed the pressure with a 38-run stand. Pandya then hit lusty blows to take India home.
Unlike India, West Indies suffered early setbacks due to poor batting. The good balls from the pacers — like when debutant Khaleel Ahmed angled one across Denesh Ramdin and induced an edge or when he tempted Kieron Pollard with a ball that slanted away or the Jasprit Bumrah delivery that beat Darren Bravo but missed the outside edge — didn’t fetch wickets. India weren’t at their best while fielding either; Rahul and Krunal misfielding or misjudging shots and Rahul dropping a steep chance in the deep as well.
Ramdin’s wooden feet gave Umesh Yadav his only wicket. Then the run-out that was symptomatic of all that was wrong with West Indies’ batting on Sunday. Shai Hope turned one to the on-side and ran but when Shimron Hetmeyer changed his mind midstream, both were running to the same end. Hetmeyer gave Karthik work when an attempt to swing at Bumrah gained more height than distance.
At 28 for three and gasping for breath, West Indies were asphyxiated by Krunal and Kuldeep Yadav. Kieron Pollard hit Krunal for a six — it took 39 balls for the next boundary to come — but fell while trying an encore to one from the left-arm spinner that he was forced to reach.
Man-of-the-Match Kuldeep had West Indies playing in hope. Dhawan made his first wicket happen with a running effort to pouch Darren Bravo. Rovman Powell couldn’t read a googly and Carlos Brathwaite went so deep in the crease that he could have felt Karthik’s breath from behind. When Krunal and Kuldeep bowled in tandem, West Indies lost four wickets for 29 runs in eight overs.
Fabian Allen, another debutant along with Khary Pierre, swung his bat but gave Ahmed his first T20I wicket. Keemo Paul and Pierre took 16 off Umesh, who bowled the 19th over, and given how they bowled, West Indies were left ruing how underwhelming they were with the bat.