India go down fighting in high-scoring battle in Hyderabad
After a full-blown batting show in Hyderabad, West Indies managed to prevail in a high-scoring contest, levelling the series 2-2, setting up the series decider in Bengaluru.
Winning the toss in Hyderabad, India opted to bowl. However, the Indian bowlers had an extremely ordinary day in the office with the surface being a walk in the park for the batters. Shai Hope took it on himself to haunt the Indian bowlers while he had instrumental cameos coming in from the other end.
Jewell Andrew (16), Shimron Hetmyer (33), Rovman Powell (24) and Sherfane Rutherford (49*) chimed in with hard-hitting cameos while Hope kept on igniting the sparks in Hyderabad. Hope smashed a 50-ball-102, rocking four fours and nine sixes. West Indies totted up 247/3 at the end of 20 overs, setting a daunting number ahead of the Men in Blue.
Sanju Samson hunkered down to business from the very onset while Abhishek Sharma was happy to take a backseat from his usual aggression. Samson rocked 56 from just 23 balls, and completely dominated the opening partnership of 60 runs. Keemo Paul dealt a double whammy bagging the scalps of Samson and Ishan Kishan (6) in quick succession.
Shreyas Iyer (16) couldn’t convert his start into a big knock as he fell to Shamar Springer. The hosts were pushed to the edge of the cliff trying to be extra aggressive when they lost Abhishek Sharma (29) and Naman Dhir (0) in quick succession. Wobbling at 130/5, India needed something special to steady the ship in the first place and then push for the kill.
Tilak Varma (43) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (41) came together to stitch together a 70-run partnership for the sixth wicket, providing India crucial momentum and also the platform to go for the finish line. However, Romario Shepherd struck in the 17th over to get the better of Varma while Keemo Paul put in a late shift to claim a fifer that also featured the wicket of Reddy as India got bundled out for 223.
West Indies won the game by 24 runs, setting up a grand series decider to be played in Chinnaswamy on Saturday.
