West Indies Cricket Team. (Photo Source: RANDY BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images)
Nicholas Pooran continued his solid T20 form against India as he slammed 67 off just 40 with six fours and four maximums to help West Indies in defeating India by a margin of two wickets in the second T20 international at Providence Stadium in Guyana. With this, the home side has now taken a 2-0 lead in the series, with three more matches to follow.
Speaking about how the game panned out, skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss, and India elected to bat first. Shubman Gill got dismissed for just seven, while his opening partner Ishan Kishan made 27. Suryakumar Yadav managed to score only one, while youngster Tilak Varma smashed 51 off 41 to bring up his maiden fifty in just his second T20I. Sanju Samson failed to grab his opportunity again. He got out cheaply stumped for seven. Hardik racked up 24 off 18 as his side managed to reach a total of 152/7. Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, and Romario Shepherd bagged two wickets each.
In reply, the hosts got off to the worst possible start with 2/2 as Brandon King and Johnson Charles got dismissed for zero and two, respectively. Pooran then held the innings with his counter-attacking knock while captain Rovman Powell (21) and Shimron Hetmyer (22) chipped in to help their side get over the line. For his match-winning half-century, Pooran grabbed the Player of the Match award.
Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the second T20I between West Indies and India:
50 – Suryakumar Yadav appeared in his 50th T20 international match.
524 – Nicholas Pooran has now smashed the most T20I runs (524) against India. He surpasses Aaron Finch’s tally of 500 runs.
2 – Tilak Varma became the second youngest Indian to score a half-century in T20Is aged 20y 271d. Rohit Sharma is at the top for hitting a fifty against South Africa in Durban in 2007 aged 20y43d.
18.82 – Sanju Samson has managed to score only 320 runs in 18 T20I innings at a poor average of 18.82 with just one half-century.
1 – For the first time, West Indies defeated India in consecutive T20Is since 2016.
5 – Pooran has now struck the most 50+ scores (five) against India in T20Is. Jos Buttler, Colin Munro, and Quinton de Kock are tied in the second spot with four such scores.
73 – Hardik Pandya has now picked up India’s third-most wickets (73). He went past Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin’s tally of 70 and 72 wickets, respectively. Yuzvendra Chahal (95) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar(90) are in the top two spots.
101 – Alzarri Joseph reached the milestone of 100 wickets in T20 cricket.
3 – Chahal has now dismissed Shimron Hetmyer for the most times (three) in T20 internationals. Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Bishnoi, and Rashid Khan have all got rid of Hetmyer twice each.
110.00 – Pooran has hit 220 runs in four innings at a staggering average of 110.00 with three half-centuries at Providence Stadium in Guyana.