Tilak Varma scored his first international half-century, but it was not enough to prevent India from suffering a stunning two-wicket loss to West Indies in the second Twenty20 International that took place on Sunday in Guyana. The match was played against West Indies.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, India battled to a score of 152-7. Despite Nicholas Pooran’s score of 67, India seemed to be on the verge of claiming victory when West Indies lost four wickets for three runs, bringing their score down to 129-8.
The tailenders for the West Indies, Alzarri Joseph and Akeal Hosein, held their composure and smashed the winning runs to get their team over the finish line with seven balls to spare.
The West Indies now have a 2-0 advantage in the five-match series after claiming a four-run victory in the first match, which took place on Thursday in Tarouba.
The 20-year-old Varma, who helped the Mumbai Indians light up the IPL this season with 343 runs, hit 51 runs off of 41 balls until he clipped the left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein to fine leg, where Obed McCoy took the catch. Varma’s performance helped the Mumbai Indians light up the IPL.
After Shubman Gill was dismissed by being caught at third man off of Alzarri Joseph and Suryakumar Yadav, who was playing his 50th T20I, was dismissed by being run out by a straight hit from Kyle Mayers, India was left with a score of 18 for two as Varma stepped to the crease.
Before the opener, Ishan Kishan, was bowled by Romario Shepherd for 27, Varma and Ishan Kishan contributed 42 runs to the score for the third wicket.
After the early demise of Sanju Samson and the departure of Varma, who had scored 51 with six fours and five sixes, the onus was placed on Hardik Pandya, the team’s captain, to get the Indians closer to a goal that was at least respectable by scoring 24 runs off of 18 balls.
Pandya took out Brandon King and Johnson Charles in the first four balls of the West Indies’ response, giving them the worst possible start to their innings.
Pooran, on the other hand, found his range quite soon and clubbed six fours and four sixes in his 40-ball score of 67.
Mayers (15) and captain Rovman Powell (21) provided some assistance for the West Indies, and until Pooran hammered Mukesh Kumar to Samson in the covers, it seemed as if the West Indies were in control of the situation.
From a score of 126-4, the West Indies only managed to score three runs after losing four wickets, three of which occurred during the 16th over that was bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal.
Shimron Hetmyer was the seventh man out and was leg before on review for 22 in the third of those instances.
Because of this, they needed 24 runs from the last four overs despite the fact that there were only two wickets left.
However, Joseph and Hosea prevailed over them to take first place.
Following their 1-0 victory in the earlier two-Test series, the visitors defeated the West Indies in the One-Day Internationals by a score of 2-1.