Barbados, Aug 4:Ā Rovman Powell (48 off 32) played a captain’s knock to take West Indies to 149 for six after the hosts opted to bat at the Brian Lara Stadium. With 37 needed off the last 30 balls and six wickets in hand, India self-destructed to end at 145 for nine in 20 overs.Rovman Powell, West Indies captain, said,Ā It’s a very good feeling. We talked about starting this series on a positive note and the guys did that. It was our game to lose, they didn’t have a set batter and I was confident going into the last over. After watching the Indians bowl, I thought we were a spinner short. We got to utilise what we have and back our skills. It was difficult (to bat). We always knew that the new ball was going to give us runs. This series will be decided on how West Indies batters bat against spin in the middle overs. We have the power to load in the backend. The left-handers like Pooran, Hetmyer and Mayers will be key in that aspect. I knew it was going to be difficult to start in the Caribbean. But once you get a start, runs is there. Jason (Holder) was fantastic today. He summed up the conditions very well.
Hardik Pandya, India captain, said,Ā We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which costed 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. 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. It (playing three spinners) was more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together. Axar adds a very good component in his batting as well. We felt that was the right combination. Mukesh (Kumar) – to have this two weeks which he has had in West Indies – where he made debuts in all three formats is really good. Genuinely, he’s a nice guy. He has a very good heart, wants to contribute for 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 the fearlessness they have. They are going to do wonders for India.