Windies vs India: Washington Sundar joins Mashrafe Mortaza in a unique T20I record

Washington Sundar made his comeback into the Indian team for the three-match T20I series versus Carlos Brathwaite’s Windies. The opening encounter of the series took place on August 3, at Florida, Lauderhill and Sundar didn’t flatter to deceive. The youngster only bowled a couple of overs and picked up the wicket of left-handed opener John Campbell, giving away 18 runs.

The 19-year-old also played the winning shot of Keemo Paul in the 18th over of the Men in Blue’s run-chase to take his team over the line. Sundar smacked the bowler down the ground for an over-boundary to pull the curtains down on the encounter. Virat Kohli’s men were chasing a modest target of 96 and they made an absolute meal of it, losing as many as six wickets.

Washington Sundar joins Mashrafe Mortaza

Meanwhile, The Tamil Nadu-born Sundar joined Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh ODI skipper, in a unique record in the T20I format. The Young Turk became the second cricketer after Mashrafe to claim the first wicket of the opposition in the match and scoring the winning run. The Tigers’ legend was the sole holder of the record when he accomplished it against Zimbabwe in 2015.

In that game, the 35-year-old speedster nipped out opener Sikandar Raza and he ended up picking up a couple of wickets, conceding 20 runs. During the run-chase, Mashrafe came in and ensured Bangladesh’s victory with a massive over-boundary. Mortaza ended with 15 runs off 12 balls with two fours and a six. The experienced Mortaza doesn’t play T20I cricket anymore.

As far as India’s game against the Caribbean team is concerned, after Sundar gave his team the opening breakthrough, the bowlers didn’t look back. Navdeep Saini picked up the wickets of Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer in his very first over and set the cat amongst the pigeons in the opposition camp. Saini also bowled a wicket-maiden in the 20th over, dismissing Kieron Pollard.

Thereafter, the visitors lost wickets at pretty regular intervals, though they never fell behind the eight-ball. Sundar came to bat after the fall of Krunal Pandya’s wicket. At that point time, India needed eight runs off four overs and Sundar didn’t allow any more hiccup for the Indian team.