Kolkata: Ravi Bishnoi’s two-wicket haul was backed up by quality knocks by Rohit Sharma (40) and Suryakumar Yadav (34*) as India defeated West Indies by six wickets in the first T20I of the three-match series here at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.With this win, India has gained a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and the second T20I will now be played on Friday at the same venue.
Chasing 158, India got off to a quickfire start as openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan put on 58 runs inside the first six overs. The 64-run opening stand finally came to an end in the eighth over as Roston Chase got the better of Rohit (40). Chase got his second wicket in the 12th over as he dismissed Kishan (35) and India was reduced to 93/2, still needing 65 runs for the win.
Rohit Sharma, said, ‘Rohit Sharma, India skipper: Should have finished that off a little early, wanted to be clinical. Happy with the win and we can take a lot of confidence from this game. Restricting them to that score was a great effort from the bowlers. With the bat we were not clinical and it’s something we can learn from. Bishnoi is a very talented guy which is why we drafted him into the squad straightaway. We see something different in him. He’s got lot of variations and skill-set with him. He can bowl at any stage and it gives us a lot of options to rotate the other bowlers. Very happy with his first game for India and he’s got a bright future and it’s just about us now on how we use him. Someone like Shreyas Iyer is sitting out, very hard on him not making it to playing eleven, but we needed someone to bowl in the middle which is why we couldn’t get him in. It’s always nice with that kind of competition going around and a lot of the guys are missing out as well. I’m happy to have that kind of challenges rather than not having players available and not in form. We were very clear with Shreyas and we told him we want that option going into the World Cup. Guys do understand what the team wants and all these guys are professionals and they do understand that team comes first. Once everyone is available it’s something we need to sit down and understand. Lots of things to take into consideration and sometimes it can be very tough on the guys missing out, but we want to make sure that we give out a clear message with guys performing needs to get that run and we want to put the team first. I have been talking to him (Ishan) for a long time now, when he was playing with Mumbai Indians in the middle order which wasn’t his natural position. We saw in Chennai when the pitch was slow he wasn’t able to get going, we just want to make sure that we give him that confidence with what he needs to do and look to find that odd boundary in the middle. It’s just about rotating strike in the middle and with Ishan it’s just about getting some game time and wearing the blue and playing for India, there’s too much pressure. It’s our job to make sure that whenever he steps in he’s quite comfortable.’
Kieron Pollard, West Indies skipper, said, ‘Between overs 6-15 we only scored 46 in 9 overs and if we had 18-20 more runs during that phase it would have been competitive. After six overs they were in front, but I thought the bowlers and fielders did really well to pull things back. Different times calls for different things, they have quality bowlers and we have to play it as we see it. The guys are working hard to get things right and again it’s just a matter of setting it up properly. The ball was wet and the bowlers were bowling high full tosses and I wanted them to have a fair share to execute. Having said that, it was a very, very good game of cricket.’
Ravi Bishnoi, Player of the Match, said, ‘Feeling better now (no nerves). It’s a dream to play for India and it felt good. I was nervous at the start but wanted to contribute for the team as we know West Indies is one of the strongest teams in T20 cricket. It’s slightly a challenge to grip the ball when there’s dew. I never thought about this (winning the MoM) but it’s a dream come true moment for me.‘