Nicholas Pooran's charge helped WI defeated India by 2 wickets in second T20I.
Hardik Pandya called correctly and chose to bat first and revealed that Kuldeep Yadav was out with an injury with Ravi Bishnoi replacing him.
India's batting was shouldered by Tilak Varma, who made his maiden T20I fifty in only his second game. Ishan Kishan (27) and Hardik Pandya (24) helped the final total to 152/7 as West Indies bowlers made merry on a difficult track.
Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, and Romario Shepherd picked two wickets apiece.
Then, Hardik Pandya gave India the perfect start as he removed Brandon King and Johnson Charles in the first over itself. Arshdeep Singh then took the wicket of Kyle Mayers for 15 runs but then came the counterattack from Nicholas Pooran.
He made 67 in 40 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes, including an 18-run over off Ravi Bishnoi. While Mukesh Kumar dismissed him, Yuzvendra Chahal brought India back by dismissing Jason Holder (0) and Shimron Hetmyer (22).
With 24 runs more needed, Hardik Pandya needed to bowl out Chahal, but instead, he went with the pacers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar. Also surprisingly, Hardik Pandya didn’t bowl Akshar Patel for a single over, while Ravi Bishnoi went for 31 runs in his 4 overs.
In the end, Akeal Hosein and Alzarri Joseph remained unbeaten and took West Indies past the finishing line with 7 balls to spare. Hardik Pandya picked 3 wickets, apart from Chahal’s 2.
With this 2-wicket win, West Indies went 2-0 up in the three-match series, and netizens and cricket fans were not happy with Indian captain Hardik Pandya on social media for his unnecessary experimentation with his captaincy as Chahal had one over in hand and Akshar Patel didn’t bowl at all.
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