India and West Indies met in the second T20I of the three-match series in the new Ekana International Cricket Stadium, which was renamed as Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium on the eve of the game.
India had won the first match in Kolkata in a game that made them work for victory despite chasing 109 runs. Here Windies captain Carlos Brathwaite won the toss and chose to bowl first and put India into bat first.
India brought in Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Umesh Yadav, while West Indies brought in Nicolas Pooran.
Brathwaite soon found out that his decision to bowl first was a wrong one as Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan (43 in 40 balls) and Rohit Sharma added 123 runs in 14 overs. However, after that, Rohit Sharma opened up and scored his fourth T20I century, the most by any batsman in T20Is and also eclipsed Virat Kohli as the highest run scorer for India in the T20Is.
KL Rahul also hit 26* in 14 balls, but Rohit smashed 111* runs in 61 balls with 8 fours and 7 sixes. His efforts took India to 195/2 in 20 overs.
For the West Indies, it was not a good day with the ball as Khary Pierre went for 49 runs for a lone wicket and captain Brathwaite went for 56 runs in his 4 overs. Fabian Allen picked 1/33 in his four.
West Indies needed a good start to their chase and hence sent Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer to open for the first time. But Khaleel Ahmed dismissed them both before they could do any major damage. Hope was bowled for 6 and Hetmyer scored 15 and was caught by Dhawan.
Then came Kuldeep Yadav who removed Darren Bravo (23 in 18 balls, 4x4s) to a fabulous reflex catch by Rohit in slips. Then Kuldeep cleaned up Pooran for 4 to a brilliant straight one.
West Indies crumbled in front of a mountainous target as they were reduced to just shortening the margin of defeat. They might take heart from the fact that they weren’t bowled out by Indian bowlers.
Khaleel Ahmed (2/30) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/32) both were amazing with the ball and were well supported by Bumrah (2/20) and Bhuvneshwar (2/12), as Windies were just not upto the mark with either the bat or the ball. They ended up with 124/9 in 20 overs.
India won the match by 71 runs and with it also won the series 2-0 with one match to go.
BRIEF SCORES:
IND 195/2 (R Sharma 111*; F ALLEN 1/33) defeated WI 124/9 ( B KUMAR 2/12) by 71 runs
