- By Aalok Sensharma
- Fri, 06 Dec 2019 11:54 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Hyderabad | Jagran Sports Desk: Captain Virat Kohli on Friday played a brilliant innings of 94 and helped India win by six-wickets against the West Indies in the first T20 International at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. He was well guided by opener KL Rahul who scored a handy knock of 62. With this win, the Indian team has taken a lead of 1-0 in the three-match series.
Put into bat, the West Indies scored 207 for 5 but India rode on superb innings from Virat Kohli (94 not out) and KL Rahul (62) to overhaul the target, scoring 209 for four in 18.4 overs.
Thanks to brilliant innings from Shimron Hetmyer (56), the West Indies were able to put 207 runs on the board. He was well support by Brandon King and skipper Kieron Pollard who gave him a handy partnership in the middle.
On the other hand, the Indians were far from impressive on the field as Washington Sundar and Rohit Sharma dropped a few catches. Sundar also leaked runs in his overs.
Evin Lewis also played a handy innings of 41 runs. After the West Indies lost the first wicket, Lewis and King added 51 runs for the second wicket, during which they played some fearless shots, to take West Indies forward. Lewis, in particular, was the more aggressive of the two as he dispatched to the stands any bad delivery that came his way.
Lewis continued his slaughter but was trapped by Sundar. After this, Hetmyer came to the crease. He went about his business in a quiet fashion, hitting the bad deliveries out of the park to register his fifth half-century in T20 cricket in 35 balls. But a double breakthrough by Yuzvendra Chahal (2/36) in the 18th over put a check on West Indies' scoring rate.
However, Jason Holder (24 not out off 9 balls) and Dinesh Ramdin (11 not out off 7) remained unbeaten as West Indies scored 63 runs off the last five overs.
India now has taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second T20 International will be played in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
(With PTI inputs)
