West Indies vs India: Only T20I, Who Said What

After the end of a successful one-day series against West Indies, winning it by a margin of 3-1, India hoped to leave the Carribean shore with a win in the one-off T20I fixture. Virat Kohli lost the toss and was put into bat by Carlos Brathwaite. For a change, Rishabh Pant was included into the side. After Dhawan and Kohli gave India off to a flying start Karthik and a scratchy Pant took charge of the innings.

Dinesh Karthik flawless innings of 48 came off just 29 balls, smashing five boundaries and three sixes at a strike rate of 165. The final flourish came from the bat of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin who took India’s score to 190, 20 runs short of the expected score. Evin Lewis and Chris Gayle gave a steady start to the innings.

As it turned out, something triggers Lewis when he sees India in T20s in America. After scoring the quickfire ton in Miami, Lewis brought up his second T20I century against the same opponents, as West Indies chased down the required target at ease with (9 wickets and an over and a half remaining). He was adjudged as the man of the match for his unbeaten knock of 125. Let us look at who said what.

Carlos Braithwaite

Winning captain Carlos Braithwaite was ecstatic after the win against a team like India. He pointed out the contributions from Marlon Samuels, Evin Lewis, and Williams who carried his form from the Afghanistan series. He also stated that their plans of making Bhuvi bowling 3 overs up front worked well for him. He concluded by stating that his team is going from strength to strength.

Very, very happy. Yesterday we asked the batters to express themselves and take the mantle on. The last couple of games Marlon did really well for us. The crowds came out in big numbers and the smile on their faces does it for us. We talked about wrestling back the momentum. We wanted Bhuvneshwar to bowl three overs at the start and when that happened it was a box ticked. Lewis scored a century in Florida against India and today he showed significant growth from then in staying until the end and taking us through. Excellent bowling from Williams, he bowled superbly against Afghanistan in the two T20s and his sixth over where he got Virat changed the game for us. He is going from strength to strength.

Evin Lewis

Man of the match Evin Lewis stated that he quite enjoys playing against a team like India, citing his good record against the team. Lewis also credited Gayle for taking off pressure him. He concluded by stating that he was quite satisfied with his performance today.

It was a good game. I am enjoying playing a team like India. It was a lot on my mind after five failures and I remembered that when I scored today. It is easier for me while batting with Chris, he takes a lot of pressure off me. I am not sure what this game would do to me but I am very happy with my performance today and look to continue it further.

Virat Kohli

Indian skipper Virat Kohli felt that they were 30 runs short of the expected target to start with and not grabbing opportunities on the field really hurt them. Kohli applauded the efforts of Dinesh Karthik but felt one had to go score an 80-odd score. The Indian captain wanted to stick around with this bunch of players when it comes to T20 cricket. He concluded by stating that it was a good West Indian tour for him.

I thought even in the first innings we could have 20-30 runs extra. We were on course to get 220 but we did not grab our chances and when you don’t, you do not deserve to win. We couldn’t really carry on. Dinesh was really good in the middle overs but no one got an 80 odd. We also couldn’t take our catches which did not help. We need to be patient we these guys. West Indies has a fixed squad, a settled squad and we need to give our guys a few chances. The whole tour was good. We did well in the ODIs and one match here doesn’t make a series in my opinion though. We always enjoy coming here, we won the Test series as well the last time and we go home very happy.