After dismissing West Indies for 143, India were 15 for no loss in two overs when a 15-minute thunderstorm left huge puddles on some sections of the field, including the bowler’s run-up at the pavilion end of the ground, forcing the officials to call off the match. And as soon as the India chase began the rain started.
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Opener Johnson Charles who scored 25-ball 43, with the help of two sixes and five fours, was the only one to impress with the bat for West Indies today.
Mohammed Shami provided the first breakthrough when he had Evin Lewis, the centurion from the previous game, caught at short fine-leg by Mishra.
An unfazed Charles flicked Shami for another six with the strength of his wrists and followed it up with consecutive boundaries. Extras (lb 4, w 4, nb 1) 9; Total (all out; 19.4 overs) 143; Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Lewis), 2-50 (Charles), 3-76 (Simmons), 4-76 (Samuels), 5-92 (Pollard), 6-98 (Fletcher), 7-111 (Bravo), 8-123 (Russell), 9-133 (Brathwaite), 10-143 (Badree).
Mishra struck with his first ball as he saw the back of Charles, who attempted a maximum but found Ajinkya Rahane at long on. Bumrah then claimed the wicket of Marlon Samuels (5) caught behind, and Ashwin trapped risky Kieron Pollard (13) lbw. Ashwin foxed a charging Lendl Simmons (19) with a wide ball and had him stumped.
He found the boundary five times and cleared the ropes twice but perished as Mishra’s first victim, with the tide turning in favour of the Indians.
West Indies crawled past the 100-run mark in the 14th over; on Saturday, it was into the three figures in the eighth.
“We know what MS (Dhoni) can do”.
“This is one place where we can come back and play lot of cricket maybe a triangular or a four-nation ODI or T20 series”. As a whole, the bowling unit is more experienced, have played Tests together and IPL together and as a unit, they are looking really good. “It’s a good venue to continue cricket”.
“What the umpires told us was that there was not adequate equipment over here and the condition of it (ground) was quite bad, so because the conditions wouldn’t improve we won’t be able to play a game”, Dhoni told reporters after the second T20I was washed off on Sunday (August 28). Yes, it will be a cramped schedule, but modern-day cricketers won’t mind it. “The host broadcaster wants to make money with the venture and it seems like a good product”. It’s a win win situation for everyone.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni heaped praise on off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and leg-spinner Amit Mishra for putting up a “fantastic effort” to bowl out the West Indies for a low score in the second Twenty20 worldwide cricket match here.
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MS Dhoni brought in Amit Mishra in place of Stuart Binny and the leggie did a mighty impressive job.
