WI 124/9 in 20 Overs
Thomas creamed one down the ground to the boundary but looses his footing in the last ball of the match. India register a comfortable win and pocket the series. Take a bow, Rohit Sharma.
OUT! WI 116/9 in 19.2 Overs
Bumrah takes another return catch and might have hurt his fingers while trying to hold on to the ball. The end is near. Bumrah casually walked back to his marker with minimum fuss after the catch.
K Pierre c & b Bumrah 1 (4)
OUT! WI 112/8 in 18.4 Overs
Bhuvneshwar Kumar ends Paul’s cameo. Rohit Sharma can do no wrong in this game and completes his third catch. Talk about a complete performance. It’s a matter of time now.
WI 112/7 in 18 Overs
Three sixes from the over. Paul targeted the cow corner region and got a couple of maximums. Brathwaite then used the long handle and the ball went over the long-on region. Windies need 84 from 12 balls.
OUT! WI 81/7 in 13.5 Overs
Bulls-eye from Krunal, who hits the stumps after there was a mix-up in the middle. Indians are cock-a-hoop and have victory well within sights.
F Allen Run out 0 (1)
OUT! WI 81/6 in 13.4 Overs
Another one bites the dust as Bhuvi is brought back into the attack. Rohit at square leg takes a safe catch with a leap.
D Ramdin c Rohit b B Kumar 10 (17)
The required rate is now well over 16 for the Windies. Too much to do at this point with just five wickets in hand. Brathwaite still around, though.
WI 68/5 in 10.4 Overs
Slightly cheeky from Pollard there as Bumrah lined up to take a return catch. West Indies have half their side back in the pavilion. India on top.
K Pollard c & b Bumrah 6 (11)
WI 52/4 in 8 Overs
N Pooran b Kuldeep 4 (3)
Another one goes. Kuldeep bamboozles Pooran, who is castled. India are in the driver’s seat as West Indies’ struggles against the wrist spinner continues. West Indies are in dire straits and Kuldeep’s dream run in limited-overs cricket continues.
WI 48/3 in 7.3 Overs
Kuldeep comes into the attack and he strikes. Bravo’s cameo comes to and as Rohit takes a sharp catch at slip. West Indies need inspiration now. A big partnership is the need of the hour.
D Bravo c Rohit b Kuldeep 23 (18)
WI 33/2 in 5.2 Overs
OUT! Just when he looked threatening, Hetmyer holes out at long-on to Dhawan and Khaleel picks up his second wicket
S Hetmyer c Dhawan b Khaleel 15 (14)
West Indies 23/1 in 4 Overs (Hetmyer 10, Bravo 6)
Hetmyer is on the move as he clubs Khaleel for a couple of boundaries. The Indian bowlers, though, have been tight so far as Bhuvi continues to leave no quarter at the other end.
West Indies 13/1 in 3 Overs
Bhuvneshwar is giving nothing away and India are applying pressure. The run-rate is steadily creeping up and the visitors need to go on the attack soon. There is no sign of the dew factor coming into play so far.
West Indies 7/1 in 1.3 Overs
OUT! Khaleel gets the first breakthrough for India. Hope goes for the pull, misses it, and the ball clips the top of off-stump. India on the march.
S Hope b Khaleel 6 (8)
West Indies open with Hope and Hetmyer
India 195/2 in 20 Overs (Rohit 111, Rahul 26)
CENTURY for Rohit Sharma. He gets there with a paddle to fine leg off Brathwaite. It is his fourth T20 hundred, getting there in just 58 balls. More sloppy work from Windies on the field as they leak a boundary and Rohit hammers yet another six. Carnage in the last over as well as India finish at an imposing 195/2
India 175/2 in 19 Overs (Rohit 92, Rahul 25)
Rahul is in cruise control and the boundaries continue to come thick and fast. Pollard nearly pulled off a blinder at long-on to dismiss Rahul but couldn’t hold on to the ball following a dive. Rohit is into the 90s. Last over coming up.
India 148/2 in 17 Overs (Rohit 80, Rahul 12)
Now, Rahul joins on the act by cutting Brathwaite away for a couple of boundaries. The Karnataka batsmen, trying the battle also gets one on his grille.
India 136/2 in 16 Overs
R Pant c Hetmyer b Pierre 5 (6)
West Indies are staging a mini-resurgence here as Pant departs after trying to go for one big hit too many. Pierre gets the breakthrough after leaking a boundary earlier.
Rishabh Pant comes in at no 3
India 123/1 in 14 overs
S Dhawan c Pooran b Allen 43 (41)
West Indies finally get a breakthrough but it was not after Rohit went on another leather hunt, hammering Allen for back-to-back sixes in the over. Dhawan played a lovely little hand and his innings comes to an end with Pooran taking a fine diving catch at deep fine-leg.
India 107/0 in 13 overs (Rohit 59, Dhawan 41)
Fifty for Rohit Sharma and India have moved past 100. The openers continue to motor along as Windies desperately search for a breakthrough.
India 96/0 in 12 overs (Rohit 49, Dhawan 40)
Dhawan applied the reverse sweep against Allen to get a couple. Rohit Sharma, with yet another classy flick for four, has moved one short of his fifty. Seven from the over.
India 89/0 in 11 overs (Rohit 44, Dhawan 38)
The boundary hitting may have taken a temporary break but West Indies continue to leak extras. Brathwaite is not happy with Hetmyer allowing the batsmen to sneak through for a couple.
Paul is brought back into the attack.
India 78/0 in 9 overs (Rohit 39, Dhawan 33)
Dropped! Paul drops a sitter off Dhawan and deep mid-wicket after the southpaw goes for the long hop. The ball trickles away into the boundary as well. Rohit then flicks a wayward delivery pitched on leg over the long leg stand for a six, and follows that up with a pull shot that yields him a boundary. Runs flowing thick and fast, 16 from the over.
India 62/0 in 8 overs (Rohit 28, Dhawan 26)
Rohit nearly chips the ball back to the bowler. Replays showed that the ball had bounced just in front of Allen. With deliveries skidding into the batsmen at pace, the openers were able to milk out just five singles from the over.
Allen comes into the attack
India 57/0 in 7 overs (Rohit 27, Dhawan 24)
There is a confusion over a wide and an extra delivery at the end of the over. It was going to be a five-ball over before the umpires realised that there was another delivery left. Eight from it. The Indians are motoring along with some ease.
Carlos Brathwaite brings himself on
India 49/0 in 6 overs (Rohit 25, Dhawan 19)
Pierre is not offering pace on the ball but it keeps disappearing from Rohit’s blade: he gets another maximum. The batsmen were happy to rotate the strike down the ground for the rest of the over. Excellent powerplay spell for India.
India 37/0 in 5 overs (Rohit 17, Dhawan 17)
Big over. 17 from it. Rohit slogs a half-volley over long-off for a six. Dhawan then follows it up with a thumping pull shot off the free-hit. Another no ball from the Windies. Thomas, having lost his rhythm, gave ample width to Dhawan, who gleefully drove to the fence for another four, then kept strike.
India 20/0 in 4 overs (Rohit 10, Dhawan 8)
Pierre flights it but gives ample width for Rohit to go over the top. The Indian captain gets a boundary through the long-off region. Five singles from the rest of the over.
Left-arm spinner Khary Pierre is brought on
India 11/0 in 3 overs (Rohit 4, Dhawan 5)
Rohit is still struggling for fluency. He tries to make room and cut the ball over the point boundary. Yet another tidy over from Thomas. West Indies have come out with a plan to contai the Indian top order.
India 7/0 in 2 overs (Rohit 2, Dhawan 3)
Keemo Paul is all over the place. He over-steps too and its a free-hit. However, the medium pacer comes back well in the over. The over saw Dhawan step out at will.
India 0/0 in 1 over (Rohit 0, Dhawan 0)
It’s a maiden over to start proceedings. Fantastic from Thomas once again, hitting the deck hard and delivering it an uncomfortable length for Rohit, not allowing any width whatsoever.
Dhawan and Rohit make their way into the centre. Oshane Thomas, who had removed both the Indian openers at Eden Gardens, opens the bowling.
West Indies: Shai Hope, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Carlos Brathwaite (c), Keemo Paul, Fabian Allen, Khary Pierre, Oshane Thomas
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed
The lineups are out....
West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Spin-friendly wicket for second India-WI T20I: Lucknow curator says scoring will be tough. Read here
The misery has seemed never-ending for the West Indies and India would look to ensure that the script doesn’t change when the two sides clash in the second Twenty20 International on Tuesday.
India’s four-match T20 losing streak against the West Indies ended on Sunday in Kolkata. And in the penultimate game of what has been a disastrous tour for the visitors, India would be favourites to lock the series in their favour.
India’s last win against the West Indies before Sunday came way back on March 23, 2014 in the World T20 in Bangladesh.
With the win at the Eden Gardens, India managed to better their head-to-head record against the reigning world T20 champions to 5-3 now from nine exchanges between 2009 and 2017.