Tarouba (TIP)- N Tilak Varma looked very much at home on his international debut before India made a mess of a modest run-chase to lose the opening T20I of their five-match series against West Indies by four runs here on August 3. Rovman Powell (48 off 32) played a captain’s knock to take West Indies to 149 for six after the hosts opted to bat at the Brian Lara Stadium. With 37 needed off the last 30 balls and six wickets in hand, India self-destructed to end at 145 for nine in 20 overs.
Jason Holder brought the West Indies back into the game by producing a maiden in the 16th over, when he found the stumps of India skipper Hardik Pandya (19) before Sanju Samson (12) got run out.
Tail-ender Arshdeep Singh (12) made the game more interesting with a couple of fours in the penultimate over, making use of an extra fielder in the circle due to the home team’s slow over rate. Eventually, Romario Shepherd was able to defend 10 runs off the final over.
The sole bright spot of the chase was Varma’s fearless 39 off 22 balls on his maiden outing for India. The 20-year-old southpaw dispatched West Indies’ quickest bowler, Alzarri Joseph for back to back sixes over deep square leg to announce his arrival in international cricket.
His third and final six came off an aerial drive of pacer Shepherd. It was not the easiest of pitches to bat on and most of the Indian batters found stroke making tough.
The opening duo of Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill perished cheaply before Suryakumar Yadav (21) and Varma got together. Suryakumar came up with a spectacular cut short off Joseph that went all the way before the star Indian batter was caught brilliantly by Shimron Hetmyer at extra cover. Earlier, Powell and the in-form Nicholas Pooran (41 off 34) took the hosts to a respectable total.
Besides Varma, pacer Mukesh Kumar, who made his Test and ODI debut earlier on the tour, was also handed his maiden T20 cap.
With the new ball not doing much in the powerplay, the Indian pace duo of Mukesh and Arshdeep Singh was not able to put the West Indies top-order under pressure.
Hardik introduced spin in the fourth over and Brandon King (28 off 19) made his intentions clear with an inside out six over cover off Axar Patel.
Yuzvendra Chahal (2/24) was brought into the attack in the following over and a struggling Kyle Myers (1) missed a slog sweep off the leggie’s googly only to be adjudged lbw. The replays showed the ball was missing the stumps but Myers chose not to review.
Source: PTI
Tag: T20I
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Debutant Tilak Varma’s knock in vain as India lose opening T20I
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Rohit surpasses Virat Kohli, becomes India’s 2nd most successful T20I captain
Dubai (TIP)- Rohit Sharma has surpassed Virat Kohli as India’s second most successful captain in the T20I format after registering a comprehensive 40-run win against Hong Kong in the Asia cup here on Wednesday, August 31. Sharma, who had taken up T20I captaincy after Kohli stepped down, has won 31 matches in the 37 outing while Kohli achieved 30 wins in 50 T20I matches. Former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has helped India win 41 T20I matches under his captaincy from 72 matches, is still on top of the list. On Wednesday, Suryakumar Yadav’s fireworks in the last seven overs sealed India’s Super Four spot in Asia Cup 2022 with a 40-run win over Hong Kong in a Group A match. At 94/2 in 13 overs, when KL Rahul’s struggle ended at 36 off 39 balls, Suryakumar walked in and completely changed the complexion of India’s innings. With his drives, slashes, scoops and sweeps apart from audacious wrist play sending the ball all over the park, he remained unbeaten on 68 off 26 balls, hitting six fours and as many sixes. 60 of his 68 runs came off boundaries, scored at a strike-rate of 261.53. His belligerent stroke-play made other batters in the Indian side look as if they were batting on a very different pitch. While Suryakumar hit 12 boundaries in his 26-ball knock, all other Indian batters managed to hit nine boundaries collectively in 96 balls.
Suryakumar also shared a 98-run stand off just 42 balls with Virat Kohli, who made 59 in 44 balls, hitting four and three sixes in his 31st T20I fifty and brought out some shots in the end as India fetched 78 runs in the last five overs to score a daunting 192-2, something which was a far possibility at the half-way mark score of 70-1.
Asked to review the match, Rohit was pleased with the batting show, especially in the back end of the innings. But he felt that bowling could have been better. Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja conceded just 48 runs overall to make up for the 97 runs leaked collectively by young pacers Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh to reduce Hong Kong to 152-5 in their 20 overs. “We batted pretty well to start with, got to a very good score. Came out and bowled reasonably well, we could have done slightly better with the ball.”
Hong Kong gifts Virat Kohli team jersey, shares heartwarming message
Hong Kong cricket team on Wednesday sent star Indian batter Virat Kohli a heartfelt message and gifted him a team jersey. Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering 68*, Virat Kohli’s 59* and Ravindra Jadeja’s quick fielding helped India secure direct qualification to the Super Four phase of the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 after beating Hong Kong by 40 runs here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
The message on the jersey read: “Virat, Thank you for inspiring a generation. We stand with you! There are many incredible days ahead. With strength. With love. Team Hong Kong.”
The star batter was delighted by the gift and took to Instagram to thank the Hong Kong team for their gesture.
Source: IANS and ANI
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Virat Kohli, Bumrah rested for West Indies T20Is
New Delhi (TIP)- Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were today rested from the five T20Is against West Indies which are to be played in the Caribbean islands and the United States from July 29. Star leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been rested. KL Rahul, who recently underwent a surgery for hernia, and Kuldeep Yadav were picked for the 18-man squad subject to fitness tests. Yadav had suffered a hand injury in the home series against South Africa in June. Ravichandran Ashwin also made a comeback to the squad, having played his last T20I in November last year.
It had earlier been reported that Kohli, who has been struggling to find form and hasn’t scored a century since November 2019, had asked for rest from the entire white-ball tour of the West Indies, which comprises three ODIs and five T20Is. The tour begins on July 22.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, who will not be part of the preceding ODI series, will return for the T20Is. Shikhar Dhawan will captain in the ODIs. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who was not part of the full-strength squad against England in the final two T20Is, is back in the mix.
The first T20I will be played in Trinidad on July 29, followed by a couple of games in St Kitts before the action moves to the US with two games in Lauderhill, Florida.
Squad
Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
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Hardik’s all-round heroics power India to 50-run win in first T20I
Southampton (TIP)- Hardik Pandya reigned supreme with one of the finest all-round performances in recent times as India bossed England to emerge winners by 50 runs in the first T20 International here. The swashbuckling all-rounder led India’s aggressive batting display with a blistering 33-ball 51, propelling the visitors to 198 for eight after they opted to bat first. Hardik then finished with excellent figures of 4/33, destroying England’s batting with his full quota of four overs. He became only the fourth player from full member nations to score a fifty and take four wickets in a T20I match.
England’s innings ended at 148 in 19.3 overs. This was Hardik’s first T20I half-century, helping India score at a brisk pace in the middle overs after Rohit Sharma (24 off 14 balls), Deepak Hooda (33 0ff 17) and Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 19) set it up with their enterprising knocks.
Motoring along at 178 for five at the end of 17th over, India failed to finish their innings with a flourish on a belter of a pitch. But that did not matter in the end, despite India spilling a few catches.
Defending 199, India had a dream start as Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled skipper Jos Buttler with a beautiful inswinger, having tested Jason Roy with four outswingers. Coming off his fine show with the bat, Hardik delivered with the ball in his very first over not once, but twice, removing Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone to leave England in a disarray at 29 for three in the fifth over.
Hardik was not done yet as he ended Roy’s painstaking stay in the middle when he had the opener caught at third man after a thick edge. He capped off a memorable outing by taking the wicket of Sam Curran.
Earlier, seeking to make up for the lost time after missing the fifth Test against England owing to COVID-19, Rohit got India off to a brisk start. First up, Rohit charged down the track to smash Sam Curran towards mid-off and while a diving Chris Jordan got a hand to it, the ball was hit too hard and all the fielder could do was deflect it to the fence. Reece Topley strayed down the leg and Rohit whipped it off his pads for his second boundary. That was followed by another four as the India captain played it through point, forcing his English counterpart Jos Buttler to introduce spin as early as the third over. Unperturbed, Rohit went after Moeen Ali straightaway and collected two boundaries off him by employing the sweep shots on both occasions. However, the experienced off-spinning all-rounder came back strongly to dismiss the India skipper just when he was beginning to look ominous, with a delivery that drifted away for Rohit to snick it to Buttler. Coming off his maiden century against Ireland, Deepak Hooda started from where he left off in the previous game at Malahide, smashing Moeen high over long-on for two massive sixes. That he opened his account with a maximum showed the kind of confidence that the man from Rohtak carried into Ageas Bowl. And even though Moeen enjoyed his second breakthrough in the form of Ishan Kishan, who did not look to be in control of his pull shots, India continued with their attacking approach. While Hooda started with a six, Suryakumar Yadav began his innings with a four, sweeping Moeen over backward square leg.
The man in form, Hooda continued to deal in boundaries, hitting Topley for three fours in the innings’ sixth over as India galloped to 66 for two in the powerplay. Surya dispatched Tymal Mills over fine leg for a six, and then, comfortably got two fours on the off-side off Matt Parkinson’s innocuous leg-spinners.
Amid the flurry of boundaries, India lost Hooda — a rather soft dismissal — as he failed to connect to a Jordan delivery that was going down leg. One big-hitter was replaced by another, as Hardik Pandya joined Suryakumar in the middle to continue the aggression. In no time, Hardik started dealing in boundaries and even though Suryakumar got out, after getting a six and a four off Mills and Jordan respectively, there was no stopping India’s charge. Hardik kept finding the fence with ease and a missed stumping off Parkinson, when the batter was on 37, compounded England’s woes. But they did manage to dismiss Hardik after he had got to his fifty.
Source: PTI