West Indies defeated India by one run in a record run-laden Twenty20 clash Saturday after piling up the third highest ever total in the game’s shortest format.
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“It is very disappointing to be on the losing side but what’s good to see is that we did not give up half way through”, Rahul said after India’s epic chase of 246 fell short to lose the match by a run yesterday.
Evin Lewis smashed a 100 and Johnson Charles hit 79 as the West Indies laid the foundation for victory in Carlos Brathwaite’s first game as skipper.
India thus failed to pull off the highest ever successful run chase which still stands at 236 for 6 which the West Indies pulled off against South Africa in January a year ago in Johannesburg.
While insisting that he tried really hard to propel India to the other end of the line, Rahul said that they were just unfortunate to lose the game by a whisker.
But all the drama was stored for the last over, in which India managed to score six out of the required eight runs, before Dhoni, who survived a catch on the first ball, was caught at short third-man on the final ball. On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council clarified that it was, in fact, on request from the two Boards, the BCCI and the West Indies Cricket Board, that the match timings were tweaked, reported Cricbuzz.
Shami, who made a brilliant comeback to global cricket, by becoming the fastest Indian bowler to cross the mark of 50 test wickets against West Indies in the recent four-test match series, will be eager to hit the mark in the game’s shortest format too. “That is the call that match officials have to make”, Dhoni said.
But Rohit Sharma (62) and Rahul staged a spectacular rebuilding job.
He played with authority against the Indian attack, counting nine fours and nine sixes in an innings lasting 49 balls.
There was no dearth of box-office names on show on the weekend in Florida, but in a big disappointment to the crowd Chris Gayle was missing from the West Indies line-up because of injury.
Rahul hit Narine for a six and two fours to take 16 runs from the sixth over while Rohit hit two sixes to steal the same 16 runs off the eighth over as the Indians scored at 12 runs an over to reach 100 in 8.3 overs.
India’s star batsman Virat Kohli has maintained his number one position in the ICC T20 batsmen rankings, while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned to the top five in the bowlers’ list, climbing up to fourth spot from seventh.
Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard contributed 22 runs each.
Marlon Samuels (1) and Dwayne Bravo (1) then survived the last ball with a single, but it was enough for the West Indies to get to the third highest T20I total and third highest overall score.
However, Dhoni said he has played in worse conditions during his career, citing the example of 2011 tour of England.
Bowling: Shami 4-0-48-1, Kumar 4-0-43-0, Bumrah 4-0-47-2, Ashwin 4-0-36-0, Jadeja 3-0-39-2, Binny 1-0-32-0.
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For India, Bumrah and Jadeja took two wickets apiece while Shami chipped in with one.
