St Kitts and Nevis: Left-arm pacer Obed McCoy’s six-wicket haul from Brendan King led to a half-century from Brendan King to level the five-match series 1-1 as West Indies beat India by five wickets in the second T20I here on Monday. Man of the Match McCoy made his career-best performance of six wickets for 17 runs in four overs.
This is the best performance by a West Indies bowler in T20 Internationals. Chasing the target, King scored 68 runs in 52 balls with eight fours and two sixes. In the last over, wicketkeeper Devon Thomas scored an unbeaten 31 off 19 balls to give West Indies victory. Batting first, the Indian team got out for 138 runs in 19.4 overs.
West Indies chased down the target in 19.2 overs for the loss of five wickets. Chasing the target, King and Kyle Myers gave West Indies a good start with a 46-run partnership in the powerplay. In the seventh over, however, Hardik ended Myers’ eight-run knock in 14 balls. King held on to one end while skipper Nicholas Pooran (14) and Shimron Hetmyer (six runs) were followed by Ravichandran Ashwin (1 for 32) and Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 16) from the other end, respectively. Avesh Khan (one wicket for 31 runs) got India back in the match by bowling King in the 16th over, while in the 19th over, Arshdeep added the thrill of the match by bowling Rovman Powell (five runs).
West Indies needed 10 runs in the last over and captain Rohit Sharma handed the ball to Avesh Khan. Avesh’s very first ball became a no-ball and then on the free hit, Thomas gave the team victory by hitting a six and then a four on the second ball. Earlier the match started with a delay of three hours due to the late arrival of team ‘Kit’.
After being invited to bat first, the Indian team could never regain momentum during the entire innings. Rohit (nil) got out on the first ball of the match. The Indian batsmen had a hard time grasping the pace and bounce of the pitch at Warner Park here and McCoy made a career-best use of his variety. The batsmen had no answer for his extra bounce.
Opening the innings in the second consecutive match, Suryakumar Yadav (11) hit a six over the covers against McCoy, but only after that, did the wicketkeeper return to the pavilion against the bowler. Rishabh Pant looked impressive during his innings and also hit a big six at deep square leg against McCoy. He hit the second six of his innings against Odine Smith but left-arm spinner Akil Hossain ended his 12-ball 24.
All-rounders Hardik (31 in 31 balls) and Jadeja (27 in 30 balls) then tried to build up the innings but the duo’s run rate fell short during their 43-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Holder broke this partnership by dismissing Hardik. McCoy then broke India’s hopes of a big score by dismissing Jadeja and Dinesh Karthik (07) in his second spell. India lost the last four wickets within 11 runs. Holder took two wickets for 23 runs.
