IND vs WI, 1st T20I: Hetmyer's Fifty Cruises West Indies To 207/5 in 20 Overs

India need 208 runs to win the 3-match series opener

Shimron Hetmyer’s maiden T20I fifty followed by the cameos from skipper Kieron Pollard and Branon King powered West Indies to a mammoth 207-run total against India in the first T20I in Hyderabad on Friday. The hosts need 208 runs to win the 3-match series opener. Kohli’s decision to bowl first was deeply exploited by the Caribbean guests as they didn’t leave any stone unturned to slam the Indian bowlers. Beginning with 13 runs in the first over, opener Evin Lewis continued his ruthless batting against India and provided a flying start. The other opener Lendl Simmons (2) wasn’t that lucky as he remained the only batter in the lot who was dismissed on single digit. Pacer Deepak Chahar had him in the second over of the game but the rest of the play was completely miserable for the men-in-blue. Lewis was then joined by King and they together stitched a 51-run stand for the third wicket. The former was restricted by Chahal from getting his half-century as the wrist-spinner trapped him in the front, taking him down at a personal score of 40 runs off just 17 balls. Despite removing the in-form batsman, Kohli and his men struggled inside out as the next man in – Shimron Hetmyer – turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief and showed no mercy to the hosts. Meanwhile, some quick glovework from Rishabh Pant forced King to return to the dressing room. The batsman thought of tonking a Ravindra Jadeja delivery but failed to connect. Pant made no mistake in grabbing the ball and dislodged the bails within a flash. The loss of three wickets wasn’t enough to slow down the Caribbean ship as Pollard had walked in and together with Hetmyer, he crushed all the leftover hopes. The duo added 71 runs for the 5^th wicket and Hetmyer brought up his maiden T20I fifty. Pollard then survived a hat-trick of dropped catches in the next over. The first was by Sundar once again, this time running in from long-on. Rohit Sharma then caught the ball momentarily on the boundary line behind the bowler but had to let go just as he went over the ropes. The next ball slipped right through his hands at long-on and went for a six in what was an otherwise regulation catch. Both Pollard and Hetmyer were then dismissed in the 18th over, falling to Chahal, but Holder smashed 24 off just nine balls to ensure that the West Indies ended the innings on a high. Hetmyer ended up scoring 56 as he was caught by Rohit at the long leg. Whereas Pollard got bowled after contributing 37 runs. Both of them slammed 4 maximums each during their outing.