India continued their supremacy over the hosts West Indies with an emphatic 68-run win in the 1st T20I on Friday (July 29) at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad.
Nicholas Pooran won the toss and opted to bowl first, hoping to exploit the moisture in the pitch. Rohit Sharma surprisingly opened the innings with Suryakumar Yadav, as the Mumbai duo added 44 runs in 4.4 overs before the latter was dismissed.
Shreyas Iyer (0), Rishabh Pant (14) and Hardik Pandya (1) couldn't do much, but Rohit scored his 27th T20I half-century as he made 64 runs in 44 balls to keep the innings going from his end. After he fell, Ravindra Jadeja (16) and R Ashwin (13*) played supporting roles with Dinesh Karthik, who plundered 41* in 19 balls to help the team finish well at 190/6 in their 20 overs.
West Indies' chase began on a positive note as Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks added 22 runs in 1.2 overs before left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh dismissed the former with a short ball.
Thereafter, the wickets kept falling at regular intervals for West Indies, as the Indians put up a professional bowling performance courtesy their three spinners R Ashwin (2/22), Ravi Bishnoi (2/26) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/26). West Indies eventually ended at 122/8 as India won by 68 runs.
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23-year-old Arshdeep was particularly impressive as he took 2/24 in his four overs, playing in just his second T20I, picking up the wickets of Mayers and Akeal Hosein. The latter's wicket came as a result of a brilliant yorker for which the left-hander had no answer as he was cleaned up.
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