Tilak Varma sizzles but India combust in the final lap in first T20 against West Indies | Cricket News
37 runs in five overs with six wickets in hand and Hardik Pandya & Sanju Samson at the crease. It should have been wrapped up but India found a way to collapse to a loss. The five-match T20I series is largely an opportunity to find players for the next World Cup in the format, to be held in the Caribbean and the United States. In that sense, the four-run loss at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad would not concern the Indian team management too much, even though they let a winning position slip while chasing a target of just 150.
India handed out two debuts, and the one to catch the eye the most was young Tilak Varma with his poise and attitude. Playing for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, he had given ample evidence of his class and finishing acumen. On Thursday, he got off the mark in international cricket with a breathtaking swivel-pull for six against Alzarri Joseph’s pace, off only the second ball he faced. He repeated the dose the next ball to prove that the rave reviews he has been getting of late are not misplaced. A six over wide long-off and a delicate cut past short third man showed Varma is not partial to one side of the ground. He got out for a 22-ball 39 in the 11th over, when he was looking good to guide the team to victory in his first international game.
Skipper Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson – the latter seemingly giving an audition for a World Cup spot in every outing – still seemed on course when 37 were needed in five overs with six wickets in hand. It was there that the match turned as both set batsmen got out in the space of three balls. Jason Holder castled the captain and Kyle Mayers produced a direct hit to dismiss Samson.
A promising debut for Tilak Varma. Departs after a strong knock!#INDvWIAdFreeonFanCode #WIvIND pic.twitter.com/oVIa56BPWv
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 3, 2023
Axar Patel, considered an all-rounder, couldn’t take the team home. Bowling just two overs on a spin-friendly pitch and not getting the job done with the bat doesn’t augur well for his World Cup prospects. India had a long tail in this game and though Arshdeep Singh revived interest with two boundaries in the penultimate over, getting 10 runs in the 20th proved to be a tall order.
The other Indian debutant in the game, seamer Mukesh Kumar – playing his first matches for the country in all three formats in under a fortnight, also did his job well, bowling two of his three overs at the death and going for 24 runs overall.
For the West Indies, Holder came good with figures of 2/19 in four overs, including a maiden, while left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein, opening the bowling, got the better of Shubman Gill and kept things tight with a spell of 1/17, even against the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.
Pooran, Powell rescue hosts
It was the same pitch that was used for the third one-dayer two days ago, and India read the surface as assing spinners. They played three special spinners, and the ploy seemed to be working as the West Indies top order didn’t seem to have much clue, especially against wr-spin.
Nicholas Pooran started in a blaze of boundaries, targeting Chahal and Axar Patel with the ball spinning into him. But the left-hander was not even half as impactful against chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, with the ball predominantly turning away from him. The slog-sweeps dried up and run-flow was reduced to singles.
Pooran was coming off a blitzkrieg of a hundred in the Major League Cricket final in the USA, and looked to be continuing in the same vein. He reached 22 in just six balls, but the West Indies innings slowed down considerably after the Powerplay. From a run rate of nine after six overs, the next four overs brought just 15 runs.
A combination of Kuldeep’s guile – the left-arm wr-spinner conceded just 20 runs in his four overs – and skipper Pandya’s clever change of pace and lengths – stopped the hosts right in their tracks. Pooran and captain Rovman Powell tried to raise the tempo thereafter, but once Pooran left at the start of the 15th over after scoring 41 off 34 balls, there was no one to supplement Powell’s aggression.
Shimron Hetmyer is more miss than hit as a player these days. sending him at No. 6, the team management may have hoped that the fewer number of balls to face would bring clarity to his approach, but the left-hander managed neither to stay till the end nor boost the run rate, returning to the dugout after a 12-ball 10.
Powell has made a comeback to the West Indies T20I side as the captain, and seemed all at sea at the start of his innings. His first boundary came off the 10th ball he faced, that too off the outside edge, but he gained confidence thereafter to unfurl some big hits. Kuldeep was smashed through extra cover and after he had been dropped twice in quick succession, smashed Chahal for two successive sixes – one over deep midwicket and the next down the ground. When the death overs began, he plundered 10 runs off two balls from left-armer Arshdeep, first finding the point boundary and then smashing a full toss way beyond midwicket. Powell’s 48 off 32 balls was the main reason for the West Indies reaching 149/6, a total that proved just enough on the day.
