Brilliant bowling spells by Romario Sheperd, Jason Holder and Obed McCoy, particularly in death overs helped a calm West Indies clinch a thrilling four-run win over India in the first T20I of the five-match series at Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday.
Openers Ishan Kishan (77 runs, 64b, 8x4, 3x6) and Shubman Gill (85 runs, 92b, 11x4) put on 143 in only 19.4 overs before stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya (70 not out, 52b, 4x4, 5x6) and Sanju Samson (51 runs, 41b, 2x4, 4x6) helped India set the hosts a challenging 352-run target. West Indies s
India will take on China in their first match after that they are scheduled to play Japan in their second match on Friday, August 4 followed by their match against Malaysia on Sunday, August 6. India will play Korea on Monday, August 7 followed by a day's rest before they take on nemesis Pak
Shubman said, "Very special for me, I was looking for a big score but unfortunately that didn't happen and I'm happy that we ended up on the winning side. It was a good (the pitch), initially the ball was coming on nicely and as the ball got older it became tough to hit."
In the post-match presentation, Pandya said, "It’s a special win. To be honest, I look forward to these kind of games as a captain where there is something on the line. This was more than an international game. We knew what was at stake and there would be a lot of disappointment if we lost.
Mukesh took three wickets conceding 30 runs while Thakur picked up four wickets for 37 runs. Kuldeep Yadav also cleared up two scalps and Jaydev Unadkat got one wicket.
Samson said after the first innings, "It feels really great to spend some time in the middle, score some runs and contribute for your country. I had different plans for different players, I wanted to use my feet and dominate the lengths of the bowlers."