The second T20I will be played on Sunday in Guyana.
Chasing 150 runs, India didn’t start well losing openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill for single-digit scores. But then Tilak Varma, on his debut, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya were tasked with taking India past the finishing line.
Varma scored 39 in 22 balls, while Suryakumar made 21 and Pandya made 19 runs. But then India lost wickts at crucial moments which hampered their chase badly and the team eventually could only manage 145/9 in 20 overs.
After the match, Hardik admitted that the loss of wickets “halted” India’s chase and that a young team is bound to make mistakes.
“In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase.
We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which cost us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead,” Hardik said in a post-match presser.
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Talking about the decision to play three spinners; Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Akshar Patel, Hardik said that he wants to play ‘KulCha’ together.
“It (playing three spinners) had more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together. Akshar adds a very good component to his batting as well. We felt that was the right combination,” he said.
Hardik was also praiseful of two new India players in Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar who made their T20I debuts in this match.
He said: “Mukesh (Kumar) – to have this two weeks which he has had in West Indies – where he made debuts in all three formats is good. Genuinely, he’s a nice guy. He has a very good heart, and wants to contribute to the team. He bowled a couple of overs back to back and that was fantastic.
Tilak – very pleasing to see the way he started his innings. Not a bad way to start your international cricket with a couple of sixes. There’s confidence and fearlessness they have. They are going to do wonders for India.”
The second T20I will be played on Sunday in Guyana.