Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: The ball fizzed past the bat, the Indian batsmen jumped and swayed, the West Indian captain Carlos Brathwaite even had a forward short leg in place. This is not a report of an India-West Indies Test match at Barbados in the 80s. This transpired at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in a T20 match in which only 219 runs were scored at the cost of 13 wickets at an unnatural scoring rate of 5.76 runs per over. In the end, it needed a calm head of Dinesh Karthik and an exuberance of debutant Krunal Pandya for India to emerge victorious by 5 wickets.
This was India’s first win against the World T20 champions since 2014, spanning five matches.
The first half of the match resembled the fifth ODI at Thiruvananthapuram. The Indian new ball bowlers striking early, a run out in the middle and the spinners springing into action with one of them – Kuldeep, this time and not Jadeja – running through the lower order to hold the Windies to a low total (109/8).
The second half though was drastically different. There was no early finish, no big sixes, no flurry of boundaries by India’s top three and in fact it was all square when India were reduced to 45 for 4 in 8 overs after a fire-breathing spell from young Oshane Thomas, who had threatened in the one-dayers and captain Carlos Brathwaite.
But as the match went deep, the difference of experience and the lack of depth in West Indian bowling department became a factor as Dinesh Karthik, no stranger to the Eden Gardens pitch, took centre stage.
The captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL, stayed calm in his 31 not out from 34 balls (3×4, 1×6) to steer India home with 13 balls to spare.
Hardik’s brother, Krunal, hit the winning boundary off Keemo Paul in the 18th over. The new Pandya smashed 21 off nine balls.
Debutant Thomas removed both the openers — Rohit Sharma (six) and Shikhar Dhawan (three) — for 16 inside the third over.
He bowled a peach of a delivery that clocked 147kph, the extra bounce taking an inside edge off Rohit’s blade to dismiss the stand-in skipper on his happy-hunting ground.
In his next over, he struck once again, rattling Dhawan’s middle-stump.
It was a perfect scenario for dashing Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant as he had ample time in the middle to play a match-winning knock and justify his inclusion in the side.
But Pant (1) got out playing a rash shot in his four-ball stay to become skipper Brathwaite’s first victim.
Back at the ground where he hit four sixes in an over to help his side win the World T20 two years ago, Brathwaite next dismissed KL Rahul (16) in a wicket maiden over to put India on the backfoot.
Fortunately for India, the target was not a steep one and all they needed was a sensible partnership, which turned out to be the 38-run stand from 45 balls between Manish Pandey (19) and Karthik.
Earlier, debutant Khaleel Ahmed (1/16) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/27) ensured that the Windies run-rate dried up before the spin duo of Krunal Pandya (1/15) and Kuldeep made merry. Kuldeep (3/13) also completed 100 wickets in T20 cricket.
Tottering at 63 for seven inside 15 overs, the Windies looked to fold up inside 100 but Fabian Allen (27 from 20 balls) and Khary Pierre (15 not out from 13 balls) lifted the total past 100.
Krunal finished with excellent figures of 1/14 bowling his four overs at a stretch.
After being hit for a six by Kieron Pollard in his first over, the left-arm spinner not only dismissed the explosive batsman but conceded just four runs in his final three overs to finish on a high.
Down with a “gastric complaint”, Bhuvneshwar Kumar pulled out in the last minute despite being named in the XII, but his absence was hardly felt with Yadav and debutant and Khaleel doing a fine job.
Left-arm pacer, Khaleel, was sensational giving away just 10 runs from his three overs, including a maiden over to Pollard.
It was in the same over the Windies batsmen made a mockery of running between the wickets and were sprinting against each other after confusion.
Opener Shai Hope, who had impressed with an unbeaten 123 and 95 in the ODI series, was the poor victim.
Introduced in the fifth over, Bumrah picked up another in-form batsman, Shimron Hetmyer (10), in his fourth over.
Runs dried up early as the visitors struggled at 31 for three, and the World T20 champions never looked at ease in their favourite format, taking 62 balls to complete 50 runs.
