A magnificent 44-ball 83 from Suryakumar Yadav, who packed his innings with boundary hits all over the park, kept India in the T20I series against West Indies, which is now down 2-1 going into the USA leg of the five-match series.
The two openers for India fell early in the chase of 160, which was also the biggest goal of the series thus far, but Suryakumar, the top T20I hitter in the world, countered with ten fours and four sixes to help India out of their predicament.
His performance left the West Indies bowlers with little options, which gave Tilak Varma the opportunity to quietly settle in and play an important supporting role. Following Suryakumar’s demise, Tilak grew into a better player and finished with an undefeated 49 of his own. This was his third consecutive promising innings and the first one to result in a win.
The West Indies, who won the toss and decided to bat, reached 159 for 5, which seemed good on the sluggish surface, but with a steady rain coming into play in the second innings, their bowlers had a harder time than the Indian bowlers.
They were unable to duplicate the success of India’s spinners, led by Kuldeep Yadav’s three-for, and the series now shifts to the United States with India likely holding the advantage.
In addition to India, who utilized nine consecutive overs of spin between overs three and 11, the West Indies skipper Rovman Powell elected to bat at the toss due to the Providence surface’s history of sluggish play.
However, the partnership of Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal meant that West Indies could only collect 38 runs in the first six overs. The openers Brandon King (42) and Kyle Mayers (25) occasionally struck boundaries in the powerplay.
After Mayers’ ill-timed slog sweep broke the 55-run opening stand, Axar made the first breakthrough. Johnson Charles’ lethargic performance then allowed Chahal and Kuldeep to get going. When Kuldeep successfully reviewed a lbw call to dismiss Charles with a googly, he earned a point for himself.
India resumed pacing for the first time in 66 balls with the introduction of Nicholas Pooran at No. 4, with Hardik bowling the second over. But Pooran showed symptoms of a repetition from the second T20I, where he struck a 40-ball 67, when he pounced on Kuldeep’s left-arm wrist spin from the other end.
Although Kuldeep was aware of Pooran’s desire for more big shots, he nevertheless came back aggressively in his final over. Following a superb caught-and-bowled opportunity to dismiss King, he hung on to a stump Pooran for 20 runs with a leg break. Moreover, as the final five overs drew near, West Indies had two new batters due to the wickets of the set batsmen.
Shimron Hetmyer and Powell, a seasoned duo, were called upon with only four overs remaining and West Indies only at 113 for four. While Powell ran hard between the wickets to pick up twos when possible and then muscled the Indian quicks for boundaries, Hetmyer fell in the 18th over to Mukesh Kumar’s first delivery of the game.
When Arshdeep missed his yorkers and gave up slot deliveries, Powell pounded them for two more sixes in a 17-run 19th over to offer West Indies hope of scoring more than 160 runs. Full tosses from Mukesh and Arshdeep Singh were also dispatched.
West Indies managed to set India 160 runs to win thanks to a six over the leg side from Powell in the final over bowled by Mukesh, who had only allowed two runs off his first four balls of the over. Powell, however, claimed that West Indies “lost our way in the middle overs” and that they fell short by a few runs after the game.
When Arshdeep missed his yorkers and gave up slot deliveries, Powell pounded them for two more sixes in a 17-run 19th over to offer West Indies hope of scoring more than 160 runs. Full tosses from Mukesh and Arshdeep Singh were also dispatched.
West Indies managed to set India 160 runs to win thanks to a six over the leg side from Powell in the final over bowled by Mukesh, who had only allowed two runs off his first four balls of the over. Powell, however, claimed that West Indies “lost our way in the middle overs” and that they fell short by a few runs after the game.
Tilak stepped into bat in the fourth over after Gill’s wicket, and he immediately started in the style of Suryakumar with two boundary shots. In the penultimate powerplay over, with rain in the air, the two of them worked together to score 17 runs off McCoy, putting India comfortably ahead of the DLS par mark.
But after the powerplay, it was Suryakumar’s turn to shine, proving that a dispersed outfield didn’t matter to the vice-captain of India. Full toss from Roston Chase was flicked to long-on’s right, followed by back-to-back fours off. In just 23 deliveries, Romario Shepherd helped Suryakumar reach his half-century.
The wet ball made it more difficult for the West Indies bowlers to carry out their strategies as the rain fell heavily (although not enough to halt play), and Suryakumar capitalized on even the smallest length or line errors to punish them.
At the halfway point of the chase, India were 97 for 2 and in complete control. A scoop over fine leg and a sliced drive behind point from Shepherd in the tenth over further deflated West Indies.
When Suryakumar attempted to flick a loose ball to fine leg, the needed run rate was already far below six. He eventually fell on 83, two balls after hitting Joseph for his fourth six of the innings. With a deft pull off Hosein and a heave over square leg for six off Shepherd, Tilak grabbed control of the chase while accompanied by Hardik Pandya.
Tilak got to 49 in the 18th over with India needing two more runs to win, and both Hardik and Tilak had excellent communication while racing between the wickets. But when Powell was hit by Hardik for a six over long-off to give India the victory with 13 balls remaining, he would be left stranded one short of his second T20I – and international – fifty.