West Indies will be without their two-time World Cup winning skipper Darren Sammy who has been stripped of his captaincy and deemed to be unworthy of a place in the side by the selectors.
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Braithwaite admitted afterwards it was one of the best matches he had ever been a part of, while also conceding it was a weight off his shoulders to win his first match in the role.
The second match of two back-to-back T20Is at the rarely-visited Central Broward Regional Park venue takes place on Sunday. It will also let us spend more time in the United States (unlike this time) when we played back-to-back games.
The earlier highest number of sixes in an innings was 19 hit by Netherlands against Ireland in 2014.
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.
Despite his hundred, West Indies seemed set to lose the encounter after KL Rahul also carved out his maiden T20 global hundred in scoring an unbeaten 110. For those who missed it, fear not, India and West Indies will do it all again on Sunday. The quickest for them is 47 balls, by Chris Gayle.
“Eight runs from six balls, you know you always back the batting team to get that but Bravo put up his hand today and he came good for the team”, said Lewis.
Other Indians making an upward movement in the rankings are Rohit Sharma and promising opener Lokesh Rahul. His 49-ball knock included five fours and nine huge sixes while his partnership for the second wicket with Russell yielded 78 runs.
The second T20 of the two-match series might have ended up being a damp squib, as rain ruined India’s chances of levelling the series on Sunday, but MS Dhoni was still upbeat about playing in the U.S., after a sizeable crowd came down to watch two of the biggest teams in Twenty20 cricket in action over the weekend.
India now return home and will prepare to host New Zealand for three Tests and five One Day Internationals (ODI). Three of the seven fastest 100-plus stands in this format have come in Lauderhill.
India have made one change to their playing eleven which was pipped by Carlos Brathwaite-led West Indies on Saturday.
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“Taking into account the strategic considerations behind the staging of the two worldwide matches in Florida, the match officials, on the request of the two competing members, agreed to tweak the playing hours to allow the host broadcaster to overcome the technical difficulties”, an ICC spokesperson said in reply to a specific query in this regard.
