2nd India vs West Indies T20I Highlights | West Indies win by 5 wickets

West Indies needed ten off the last over, and Oshane Thomas came to the rescue and finished the game for the Windies after some nervy moments in the final few overs.

Obed McCoy‘s career-best 6 for 17 was followed by a responsible 68 from opener Brandon King as West Windies beat India by five wickets in the second T20I in St Kitts. With the win, the hosts also levelled the 5-match series 1-1.

India vs West Indies T20I, St. Kitts | West Indies were chasing a below-par total, and they got off to a perfect start with the bat as well, as the Windies openers went on to score 46 runs in the Powerplay.

Mayers departed just after the Powerplay, but Pooran and King steadied the ship, and West Indies were at one stage motoring along nicely towards a comfortable victory.

However, Pooran departed in the 10th over, and Hetmyer, too, could not last long. West Indies still were in a comfortable position with just 38 needed off 30 balls and seven wickets in hand.
The wicket of King brought some panic in the Windies dressing room, and it came to the situation where the Windies needed ten off the last over.

Thomas came to the rescue and finished the game for the Windies after some nervy moments in the final few overs.
The pitch was rather sticky at the start. Obed McCoy seemed to have this game in command. The skipper fell off the first ball. And India – the successors of the Morgan strategy of non-stop attack – just lost all steam.
The reason why plan B of batting out some time and trying to get to 150 didn’t work.

Nicholas Pooran, the Winning team captain, said

I can finally breathe now. It has been a tough summer for us. We lost a few close and thrilling 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, and it’s a great pleasure. 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 well. Lovely to have him on our team and have that left-arm action for us.

Obed McCoy, Man of the Match, said,

This is for my mom. She is sick, and she has motivated me to be a better player. The first ball wicket put pressure on the batsmen. I always look for wickets in the Powerplay. I went in with a clean mind. In the previous game, I was overthinking a bit. It gives me a challenge, and I am just thankful for all the experiences and the challenges.

Rohit Sharma, the Losing skipper of the Indian team, expressed,

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 team, you might not always succeed. But we will learn so many things 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 were 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.

On one of those typically Caribbean pitches with the ball stopping around, the West Indies have beaten India in a T20I for the first time in three years. And these two teams play a lot. Devon Thomas, after scratching around for 11 off his first 13 balls, has turned things around, and how. WI, given the start King and Pooran gave them, had absolutely no business taking it this close. But thanks to some neat middle-overs bowling from Jadeja, Ashwin, and Pandya, along with Arshdeep doing a superb job at the death, a twist came, and choke nearly did too. Rohit’s decision of not turning to Bhuvneshwar was quite a head-scratcher.

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• 6/17 Obed McCoy Basseterre 2022 *
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• 6/17 Obed McCoy v Ind Basseterre 2022 *
• 6/25 Yuzvendra Chahal v Eng Bengaluru 2017
• 6/30 Ashton Agar v NZ Wellington 2021