(Cricket news) India defeated West Indies by 6 wickets with 7 balls to spare as the West Indies were once again disappointing with the bat and the Indians capitalised on that. Rohit Sharma put the West Indies into bat after winning the toss saying that they're not sure how the pitch will play out and having a target in front would be the best way to go forward. 

India's two wrist spinners proved to be too good for the West Indies with their variations. Nicholas Pooran's blistering knock of 61 took West Indies to a total of 167 with Skipper Kieron Pollard and Kyle Meyers also playing short cameos while the other batters well and truly struggled. Ravi Bishnoi on his debut picked up 2 wickets and gave away only 17 runs as 17 of his 24 deliveries were dot balls but he also missed his line quite a few times bowling 6 wides. Bhuvneshwar Kumar retained his place in the side despite being dropped from the ODI squad completely and picked up a wicket up front with the new ball. Harshal Patel was a tad bit expensive but did manage to pick up two scalps while Deepak Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal chipped in with a wicket each. Chahal was the one who deserved more wickets as he bowled extremely well leaving the Windies batters confused at times with his pace variations.

Chasing 168 runs, captain Rohit Sharma got his side off to a flying start with his 19 ball 40 which consisted of 4 boundaries and 3 huge sixes while Ishan Kishan played 2nd fiddle as he took 42 balls to score 35 runs. Roston Chase who was brought into the side after Jason Holder got injured came in and bowled a terrific spell, picking up both Indian openers. He gave away only 14 runs in his four overs despite bowling with a considerable amount of dew which is extremely difficult for a finger spinner. India then lost Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant in quick succession leaving the team in a minutely scary situation but Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer steadied things. The pair put together 48 runs and got India over the line with 7 balls left as India didn’t need lower order to contribute with the ball.

India have a lot of positives to take but perhaps the only negative is that they lost too many wickets in the run chase probably should have finished off the game before with less struggle. West Indies need to come back strongly in the next game where India will be eyeing a series victory. At this stage looking at the form of both teams a whitewash in the T20s after the one in the ODIs looks very likely for the men in blue.

Also read: Prasidh Krishna: India's next fast bowling prodigy with the red ball