Chasing a target of 139, West Indies almost faltered, but eventually held their nerves to register a 5-wicket win over India. With the win, the 5-match series is now level at 1-1. Brandon King hit a 52-ball 68 to set up West Indies’ chase, while Devon Thomas remained unbeaten on 31 off 19 balls. With West Indies needing 10 off the last over, Thomas hit a six off a free hit and followed it up with a boundary to wrap things up for the hosts in a match that was delayed due to logistical issues.
Rohit Sharma, Losing skipper, said Firstly, there weren’t enough runs on the board. We didn’t bat well. The pitch was playing nicely but we didn’t apply ourselves. But this can happen. When you are doing something as a batting group, you might not always succeed. But we will learn from this. It is all about giving opportunities to these guys. [On the last over] We know what Bhuvi does for us; he has been doing it for years. Unless you give chances to guys like Avesh and Arshdeep you’ll never know. But it is just one game. They have the skills and the talent and it is all about backing them. I am really proud of the bowlers and the team. Targets such as these can get over in 13-14 overs but we dragged it to the last over. I thought the guys executed the plans and really happy with the way the guys bowled. We have to look at some things in our batting. But I will say it again and again, this is the approach we want with the bat. We won’t panic. We won’t change anything after one loss. Nicholas Pooran Winning skipper, said, I can finally breathe now. It has been a tough summer for us. We lost a few close games and nearly made a mess of this as well. Obed was fantastic and all the guys just used the pitch and the conditions well. A win is a win. I believe in T20, better batsmen have to bat long. Myself, Hetmyer can take more responsibility. King should have won the game for us with the way he was batting. But hopefully he will learn from this. Thomas returned back for us after injury and came out trumps on his home ground. Obed is a bit of a freak and today he was just fantastic. He just kept picking up wickets for us. He said he would bowl full and straight on the stumps to Dinesh Karthik and it worked. Lovely to have him in the team and have that left-arm action for us.