India’s opening duo blow away West Indies to level series at Florida

It was a crazy outing at Florida as the Indian openers made easy work of their Caribbean counterparts, laying waste to the hosts without breaking a sweat in what could have been a very close encounter after the Islanders turned the tide around in significant fashion despite an implosion in the engine room.

Winning the toss, West Indies opted to bat first and their captain, Rovman Powell announced three changes to the side that suffered a defeat against India in the third T20I in the series. Roston Chase, Alzarri Joseph and Johnson Charles were sidelined while Shai Hope, Odean Smith and Jason Holder were included in the playing XI. India went with an unchanged side that managed to pull one back at Guyana.

West Indies got off to a fine start as Kyle Mayers hit the gas early. India retaliated through Arshdeep Singh who managed to produce a mishit that caught the former off-guard and flew into the safe hands of Sanju Samson. Brandon King wanted to get a move on and seemed in control until Arshdeep dealt the second blow to the Caribbean aspirations with the former holing out to a diving Kuldeep at short-third.

The fall of King triggered a collapse that saw Nicholas Pooran and Powell returning to the pavilion without troubling the scorers at all. It was Shimron Hetmyer’s arrival that steadied the rocked ship of West Indies while Hope commanded a fine charge at the other end. The duo knitted together a crucial stand of 49 runs as West Indies managed to launch a counter-attack.

However, the wicket of King opened up another portal of hope for the Indians as they quickly engulfed the likes of Romario Shepherd and Jason Holder, leaving West Indies on the fringes of another abysmal batting display.

Despite losing seven wickets, the Islanders managed to change the tide again in their favour with Odean Smith holding fort at one end while Shimron Hetmyer rocked the shores with his own brand of brilliance. Eventually it was a late flourish from Odean Smith that served as an extension of Hetmyer’s brilliance, helping West Indies to post 178 on the board.

Coming out to chase, the Indian openers had blood on their minds as Yashasvi Jaiswal hunkered down to business straight away and the Caribbean bowlers were absolutely no match for them. From coming down the track to take the bowlers head on into the V to very tactfully gliding them to various parts of the ground, it was absolute carnage from Gill and Jaiswal.

The two kept a scoring rate of 10 plus runs in an over throughout the opening stand and chronicled the joint-highest opening partnership for India in T20Is. The duo posted 165 for the opening stand from just 93 balls when Shubman Gill got out for a 47-ball-77.

Jaiswal stayed unbeaten for a 51-ball-84 that saw him hammering 11 fours and three sixes to send West Indies packing to the pavilion with their heads held low in dudgeon. India secured a momentous 9-wicket victory as the Islanders were steamrolled while India levelled the series to set up a crackling affair at Florida as the series finale.