Florida: India displayed an all-round performance to defeat West Indies by 22 runs owing to Duckworth-Lewis method at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill on Sunday.
With this win, the Men in Blue have gained a 2-0 unassailable lead in the three-match series.
Chasing 168, West Indies got off to bad start as the side lost its opener Evin Lewis (0) in the second over as Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent him back to the pavilion. Sunil Narine (4) was dismissed by Washington Sundar in the third over, reducing West Indies to 10/2.
Rovman Powell and Nicholas Pooran retrieved the innings for West Indies as the duo stitched together a partnership of 76 runs, which saw Powell bringing up his half-century.
Pooran (19) and Powell (54) were dismissed in the 14th over by Krunal Pandya to reduce Windies to 85/4 still requiring 83 runs for the win from 37 balls. Manish Pandey took a remarkable catch at the boundary ropes to send Pooran back to the pavilion.With Windies at 98/4, the match was stopped and the players were taken off the field due to rain. The players did not take the field, and India won the match by 22 runs.Earlier, Rohit Sharma’s knock of 67 runs off 51 balls enabled India to post the score of 167 runs in the allotted twenty overs after opting to bat first.
Openers Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan laid a solid foundation for the Men in Blue as the duo put up a 67-run stand. Their partnership was finally ended by Keemo Paul as he clean bowled Dhawan (23) in the eighth over.
Skipper Virat Kohli next came out to bat, and he along with Sharma stitched a 48-run stand, which saw the latter bringing up his half-century. Sharma hit three sixes in his innings, and as a result, he became the batsman with the most number of sixes in the T20I format.However, in trying to accelerate, Sharma (67) perished as he was sent ack to the pavilion by Oshane Thomas. Rishabh Pant (4), once again failed to leave a mark as he was sent back to the pavilion, reducing India to 126/3 in the 16th over.
The Men in Blue were given a big blow as Kohli (28) was dismissed in the 17th over by Sheldon Cottrell. India lacked firepower in the final overs as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals.
However, Krunal Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja scored 20 runs in the final over to take the team’s score past the 165-run mark. Pandya and Jadeja remained unbeaten on 20 and 9 respectively.
The Men in Blue and West Indies would next meet in the final T20I of the three-match series on Tuesday, August 6.
The Men in Blue were brilliant with the ball in the Powerplay. Washington Sundar was excellent in his spell of three overs along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Navdeep Saini With the series already in the bag, we might see India trying out the other players in their squad in the final T20I.
Brief Scores: 167/5 (Rohit Sharma 67, Virat Kohli 28, Sheldon Cottrell 2-25) defeat West Indies 98/4 (Rovman Powell 54, Nicholas Pooran 19, Krunal Pandya 2-23) by 22 runs on Duckworth-Lewis method. (ANI)
