Lendl Simmons” belligerence paved way for West Indies to level the series 1-1 at Thiruvananthapuram. His fluent knock of 67* helped the Carribiens to keep the series alive.
Batting first, the Indian side suffered a severe setback as the openers couldn”t provide the much -needed start. However, Kohli surprised everyone by sending Shivan Dube at number 3. The 26-year old Mumbaikar came out all guns blazing as he scored his maiden T20I fifty.
Dube had no mercy against Pollard as he scored over 26 runs in the over. After his wicket, there weren”t many boundaries in the Indian innings and this costed the match. However, a series of wickets hindered the Indian progress as the side could set a target of 171 for the visitors.
Right from the start, Lewis and Simmons were extremely positive in their approach. They took every bowler to cleaners and kept the scoreboard ticking. Hetmyer too played his part with a quickfire knock of 23.
Pooran who replaced Ramdin made sure to finish the formalities in style as he scored a brisk 38 of 18 deliveries.
The decider
The final T20I will take place at Mumbai on December 11. Will the Indian side make some changes depending upon the conditions? Only time will tell.
Scores:
India 170/7 (Dube 54 , Walsh 2/28)
West Indies 173/2 ( Simmons 67*,Jadeja 1/22)