India 179 for 1 (Jaiswal 84*, Gill 77) beat West Indies 178 for 8 (Hetmyer 61, Hope 45, Arshdeep 3-38, Kuldeep 2-26) by 9 wickets
Gill and Jaiswal, a glimpse of the long run
If West Indies had a semblance of hope of sealing the sequence with a recreation to spare, India’s younger weapons had different concepts. Jaiswal bookended the opening over of the chase with fours, slashing the size ball from Obed McCoy by means of third earlier than lofting one over mid-off. He then greeted Jason Holder with three fours earlier than Gill introduced his trademark short-arm jab to deposit McCoy over deep midwicket.
Jaiswal’s back-to-back fours off Romario Shepherd following which Gill tore into Odean Smith within the final over of the powerplay that went for 16. India rollicked to 66 for 0 within the powerplay.
Gill and Jaiswal didn’t provide any respite to the West Indies bowlers even after the powerplay, taking part in out solely two non-boundary overs within the part until their stand was damaged. Gill notched up his second fifty-plus rating in T20Is earlier than Jaiswal obtained to his maiden half-century in simply his second match. It was utter domination from the pair that helped them equal Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s file for the best opening partnership for India, earlier than Gill picked out deep midwicket along with his flick.
Jaiswal, within the firm of Tilak Varma, ensured India suffered no extra hiccups in holding the sequence alive.
A well-known story until…
On a vibrant and sizzling morning, West Indies opted to bat first on a flat floor within the first of back-to-back T20Is in Florida however could not get the best begin. Kyle Mayers began with a few fours off Axar Patel, who opened the bowling for India, earlier than smacking a most off Arshdeep Singh over deep midwicket. However Arshdeep exacted revenge subsequent ball bouncing Mayers out to get him caught behind.
Brandon King continued to bat positively to drive West Indies within the powerplay. He danced down the monitor to Yuzvendra Chahal’s legspin to tonk him down the bottom for a most earlier than heaving a size ball from Arshdeep over deep midwicket. However as soon as once more Arshdeep struck after a boundary ball to have King caught at brief third.
When Kuldeep Yadav picked up two wickets in his first over – together with having Nicholas Pooran miscue one to long-on off his first ball of the match – it appeared West Indies would as soon as once more flatter to deceive after an attacking first six overs the place they scored 55 for two.
… Hope and Hetmyer propel West Indies
Shai Hope was introduced in for his first T20I since March 2022 after Johnson Charles had returns of three, 2 and 12 within the first three matches. He used his ft to assault each Axar and Chahal. On the different finish, although, West Indies misplaced three wickets for 3 runs to go from 54 for 1 to 57 for 4 when Hetmyer joined Hope.
After a few quiet overs, Hope broke the shackles by hitting Chahal for a 4 and 6 within the tenth over. Hetmyer then unleashed a flurry of boundaries – first flicking Kuldeep over midwicket earlier than greeting Hardik Pandya into the assault with a six and a 4. They added 49 off simply 36 balls for the fifth wicket earlier than Hope holed out to long-on.
Hetmyer then modified gears to scoop Mukesh Kumar over brief high-quality leg for a six earlier than releasing his arms to ship Kuldeep hovering over further cowl. He walloped Arshdeep into the deep midwicket stands earlier than changing into his third sufferer, due to an athletic effort from Tilak Varma, who charged in from long-on and dove ahead to pouch the catch.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
