WI v IND 1st T20I Review: West Indies clinch a last ball thriller

Dwayne Bravo is called one of the best death bowlers in Twenty20 cricket for a reason and he proved it once again. He was bowling the last over against MS Dhoni and KL Rahul with 8 runs required off the last 6 balls, the equation boiled down to 2 off 1 ball and the Indian crowd rooting at Lauderhill expected Dhoni to finish it off in his own style but it was an anti-climax as Bravo pulled off a superb slower last ball to get the India skipper caught by the short third man fielder and win the game for West Indies by one run.

The Indian team was cruising their way from the 17^th over onwards once they scored 20 runs in that over. Rahul was batting on 110 while Dhoni in the 40s was also hitting his shots pretty well. Carlos Brathwaite in his first game as the skipper had Bravo at his disposal to bowl the toughest over. The young Karnataka batsman who scored his maiden T20I ton was left gasping at the other end as his exquisite knock proved insufficient to help the team over the line.

The Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill was ready to host the biggest game it had ever witnessed. Both the teams made changes. India decided to replace Shikhar Dhawan with Lokesh Rahul while Ajinkya Rahane was handed over the opening responsibilities. West Indies was expected to go in with a full strength squad after the selectors picked the Twent20 specialists but they couldn’t pick the big man Chris Gayle who has an injury concern while Test skipper Jason Holder wasn’t a part either. Evin Lewis replaced Gayle, Andre Fletcher took over the gloves from Denesh Ramdin. They also had Kieron Pollard coming in for Darren Sammy and Sunil Narine for Sulieman Benn.

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On a wicket where the average first innings total during the recently played Caribbean Premier League was 170 the West Indies batters managed to post 245 runs. Definitely an over par total irrespective of how good the batting conditions are.

Explosive, destructive, out and out aggressive the West Indies batting today was synonymous to these terms as Charles and Lewis came out all guns blazing. If you had to show someone an example of what the jargon dealing in boundaries and sixes meant in cricket the Windies inning was just enough to explain it pretty perfectly. They hit a total of 21 maximums in the innings as the Indian bowlers looked helpless.

The opening bowlers, the spinners, the specialist were all carted away for sixes. A particular strategy that they devised well by the West Indian batsmen was to welcome every bowler with a boundary or six. With the first ball being hit away the bowlers were always under pressure and they capitalized on it. Most of the biggies from Charles as well as Lewis weren’t just slogs, weren’t ugly but crafted shots powered over the ropes.

Team India found first success in the 10th over as Mohammad Shami bowled Charles who was looking to hit a paddle shot towards fine-leg. A poor shot selection and he missed out on a well-deserved ton getting out for 79 runs off 33 balls. That ended the 126 runs opening partnership but couldn’t break the momentum as Evin Lewis did what Charles couldn’t and converted his knock into his first T20I century. Meanwhile, Andre Russell hit a few big shots but was accounted for by Ravindra Jadeja. He also had Lewis caught by Ashwin for 100 from 49 balls.

After the half-way mark in the first innings and the wicket, Dhoni brought in the all-rounder Stuart Binny to bowl the 11th over. Lewis was ready for it and hit Binny for a plenty. The first ball was on length and it disappeared. He compensated for it with the next ball and went a bit too full which made it easier for the batsman to hit it into the sight screen. He could feel the pressure and the 3rd ball was a wide. Binny had to bowl it again and chose to go for the low full toss. It wasn’t good enough and Lewis smashed it over long off for the third six on the third legitimate delivery. The next one was short and wide and had a similar result, a six. Binny banged the next one short and it was the fifth six and one could sense Lewis was looking to redo a Yuvraj Singh. But he couldn’t as the last ball got him just one run.

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India’s death over specialist Jasprit Bumrah got a couple of wickets in the last over but West Indies finished with 245 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Bumrah and Jadeja returned a couple of wickets each while Shami got one.

Rohit Sharma and Rahane had to get going from the word go to give the team a start they required while chasing a target as big as that. Rohit seemed in good touch as he hit Samuel Badree for three boundaries in the second over. Rahane, as he looked to take off was dismissed by Andre Russell. It required a fantastic effort by DJ Bravo to get to the catch and hold onto it.

Virat Kohli joined Rohit but he fell to Bravo in the 5^th over. Rahul and Rohit then on got the chase on the track and played some spectacular shots. The partnership never let the pressure of the required rate build and kept them in the fray. Both of them enjoyed batting against Sunil Narine who was back with a remodeled action. He was catered for 50 runs in the 3 overs that he bowled. It was their man with the golden arm Kieron Pollard who broke the partnership with the wicket of Rohit.

Rahul didn’t let that affect him as he was determined to take the team home. He had the skipper as his partner and Dhoni though coming off a break was in good touch middling the ball and also hitting the big shots. As the game inched towards the closing end India had a clear advantage but it was just about the final moment which belonged to Bravo and West Indies this time.

The Caribbean boys now lead the two-match series 1-0. The second and last game of the series will be played at the same venue tomorrow.

Brief Scores:

West Indies – 245/6 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 100, Johnson Charles 79; Jasprit Bumrah 2/47)

India – 244/4 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 110, Rohit Sharma 62; DJ Bravo 2/37)

Man of the Match – Evin Lewis