West Indies secure second win in a topsy-turvy affair as India fail to capitalize on late resurgence

What could have been a memorable turnaround for India fizzled away into a tame defeat in the second T20I at Guyana, as a lot of questions were raised by some of the decisions made by Indian captain, Hardik Pandya. 

There were countless twists and turns to the game before West Indies could finally clinch the bragging rights for the day, roaring their way to the cusp of what can be a historic series win against India in the shortest format of the game in ages.

India had a forced change that saw them bringing Ravi Bishnoi to the squad in place of an injured Kuldeep Yadav as the latter copped a niggle in the nets. Winning the toss, Pandya opted to bat first on a track that had its own set of shenanigans.

The Indian batters failed to repay the faith shown in them by their skipper as Shubman Gill threw his wicket away while trying to up the ante in the powerplay and much to India’s woes, Suryakumar Yadav was caught short of his crease during his quest of trying to steal a quick run.

The arrival of Tilak Varma did calm the nerves in the Indian camp as he paired well alongside Ishan Kishan and the duo added 42 runs for the third wicket, before Romario Shepherd sneaked his way through the defences of Kishan.

Sanju Samson had another disappointing outing as he missed the line of the ball bowled by Akeal Hossein completely and was beaten, with Nicholas Pooran completing an easy stumping. Pandya and Varma did try to rebuild the innings but with the overs running out, the latter had to get a move on and in the process was claimed by Hossein.

Pandya departed shortly as Alzarri Joseph snaffled the wicket, going through the gates of the Indian captain while India teetered along the fringes of further decline, until Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh provided a late lunge to help India cross the 150-mark as the visitors posted a total of 152. The trio of Hossein, Joseph and Shepherd shared six wickets between them as those blows proved to be crucial in throwing the spanner in the works.

India had some early success as West Indies lost two of their top-order batters in the very first over with Pandya claiming both Brandon King and Johnson Charles in almost identical manner. King holed out to Suryakumar with the latter pulling off an absolute ripper while Charles lofted a sitter to Varma. Arshdeep further compounded the Caribbean woes as he claimed Kyle Mayers’ wicket shortly after.

It was the fourth-wicket stand between Rovman Powell and Nicholas Pooran that created a significant difference between India and West Indies as the duo totted up 57 runs, slowly batting India out of the game. 

Despite Pandya bagging the wicket of Powell, Shimron Hetmyer played a crucial knock that allowed West Indies to continue their flow of runs without breaking a sweat. It was only after a stand of 37 runs between Pooran and Hetmyer that India managed to spark a sudden watershed that left the hosts tumbling.

From 126/4, they crumbled to 129/8, courtesy of Mukesh Kumar who clinched the crucial scalp of Pooran for 67 while Yuzvendra Chahal’s third over saw three dismissals taking place - a run-out, an LBW and a stumping.

With 24 runs still to be scored, India had the upper hand and were probably tipped to finish the game off even before the hosts could realize what they had been struck with, only for Pandya to questionably keep Chahal away from bowling till the 20th over.

Once Arshdeep and Mukesh asked to bowl the 18th and the 19th over respectively, things went out of hand as Joseph and Hossein managed to fend off the Indian surge and secure the bragging rights in a thrilling turnaround of affairs as the visitors were left gobsmacked. Hossein scored 16* while Joseph contributed 10* to allow the West Indies to run away with a victory.

Pandya was the pick of the bowling lot with three crucial wickets while Yuzvendra Chahal’s 3rd over seemed to be the game-changer for India, featuring multiple wickets, only for West Indies to refute the Indian charge in the dying embers of the game.