India vs West Indies 2022, 1st T20I – Who Said What

India was up against West Indies in the opening T20I of the three-match series and kicked it off in a great manner by sealing the contest with six wickets. Winning the toss, India chose to show up with the ball first and the move worked in their favor as they restricted the opponents within 160 runs. As soon as West Indies got going with the willows, Brandon King turned his back soon but his partner Kyle Mayers chipped in with crucial 31 runs.

However, Nicholas Pooran remained utmost attacking in his game as he brought out 61 off 43 to push his side post 157 runs on the board. The bitter side for visitors was that no other batter from their side stepped up to take responsibilities with Kieron Pollard only putting 24* off 19 from his side. Debutant Ravi Bishnoi shined with the ball for India as he picked two wickets while conceding at an impressive 4.25 and was also declared as the player of the match.

Rohit Sharma leads India from front

As soon as the chase game began for India, skipper Rohit Sharma gave a dreamy start to his side as he smashed 40 off 19 deliveries. On the other hand, his partner Ishan Kishan took his time to produce 35 runs off 42 deliveries. With Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant not being impressive, the finishing job was done successfully by Suryakumar Yadav (34* off 18) and Venkatesh Iyer (24* off 13).

Winning skipper, Rohit Sharma said:

Should have finished that off a little early, wanted to be clinical. Happy with the win and we can take a lot of confidence from this game. Restricting them to that score was a great effort from the bowlers. With the bat we were not clinical and it’s something we can learn from. Bishnoi is a very talented guy which is why we drafted him into the squad straightaway. We see something different in him. He’s got lot of variations and skill-set with him. He can bowl at any stage and it gives us a lot of options to rotate the other bowlers. Very happy with his first game for India and he’s got a bright future and it’s just about us now on how we use him. Someone like Shreyas Iyer is sitting out, very hard on him not making it to playing eleven, but we needed someone to bowl in the middle which is why we couldn’t get him in. It’s always nice with that kind of competition going around and a lot of the guys are missing out as well. I’m happy to have that kind of challenges rather than not having players available and not in form. We were very clear with Shreyas and we told him we want that option going into the World Cup. Guys do understand what the team wants and all these guys are professionals and they do understand that team comes first. Once everyone is available it’s something we need to sit down and understand. Lots of things to take into consideration and sometimes it can be very tough on the guys missing out, but we want to make sure that we give out a clear message with guys performing needs to get that run and we want to put the team first. I have been talking to him (Ishan) for a long time now, when he was playing with Mumbai Indians in the middle order which wasn’t his natural position. We saw in Chennai when the pitch was slow he wasn’t able to get going, we just want to make sure that we give him that confidence with what he needs to do and look to find that odd boundary in the middle. It’s just about rotating strike in the middle and with Ishan it’s just about getting some game time and wearing the blue and playing for India, there’s too much pressure. It’s our job to make sure that whenever he steps in he’s quite comfortable.

Losing Skipper, Kieron Pollard said:

 Between overs 6-15 we only scored 46 in 9 overs and if we had 18-20 more runs during that phase it would have been competitive. After six overs they were in front, but I thought the bowlers and fielders did really well to pull things back. Different times calls for different things, they have quality bowlers and we have to play it as we see it. The guys are working hard to get things right and again it’s just a matter of setting it up properly. The ball was wet and the bowlers were bowling high full tosses and I wanted them to have a fair share to execute. Having said that, it was a very, very good game of cricket.

Player of the match, Ravi Bishnoi said:

Feeling better now (no nerves). It’s a dream to play for India and it felt good. I was nervous at the start but wanted to contribute for the team as we know West Indies is one of the strongest teams in T20 cricket. It’s slightly a challenge to grip the ball when there’s dew. I never thought about this (winning the MoM) but it’s a dream come true moment for me.