Kolkata: The West Indies ended their disappointing series against India with a resounding win over the men in blue by nine wickets with nine balls to spare in the one-off T20I at the Sabina Park in Jamaica.
While all eyes were on Chris Gayle and other stars like Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Samuel Badree, it was the 25-year old Evin Lewis, whose scintillating ton decimated Virat Kohli’s men to secure a victory for Carlos Braithwaite’s side.
Winning the toss, Braithwaite put the Indian team into bat. Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli scored at a really good pace as India raced to 64 without loss in just 5.3 overs. But the dismissals of both these in-form batsmen in a quick span of time pushed the Indians on the back foot.
However Dinesh Karthik and the youngster Rishabh Pant, who got to play his first game of the tour put on a steady 85-run stand. Karthik, the senior pro took it upon himself to hit the boundaries while the young Pant was finding it difficult to play his natural game as he knew he had to make the most of the opportunity he got.
Karthik played a good hand of 48 runs and after his dismissal, the wickets of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2), Rishabh Pant (38) and Kedar Jadhav (4) fell in quick succession which dented the Indians hopes of taking the score to something close to 200. But cameos at the end by Ravindra Jadeja (13*) and Ravichandran Ashwin (11*) took India to 190 and it looked quite a competitive total.
The West Indies had a relatively quite start with only 17 runs coming of the first three overs. However little did anyone know that it was just the calm before a storm and Lewis’ magnificent innings was too big a storm to handle for Kohli and his men. Making someone like Gayle a mere spectator at the other end, the southpaw hit a dozen sixes and six fours to race his way to a breath-taking 125* of just 62 balls to take his side home.
Earlier in a T20I against the same opposition in Florida in 2016, Lewis had smashed a 49-ball 100 hundred that helped his side post a huge total on the board. This time, he made full use of the two reprieves he got and played a memorable knock.
His towering sixes was the highlight of the second innings as he took the Indian bowling to the cleaners. Only T20I debutant Kuldeep Yadav who had a good ODI series, picked up the lone wicket of Chris Gayle.
Virat Kohli and his men were totally destroyed by Lewis who went to register two tons against the men in blue. Veteran Marlon Samuels too played a supporting knock of 36 runs of just 29 deliveries to help steer his side to victory in a thoroughly dominating fashion.
Brief scores
India 190/6 (Dinesh Karthik 48, Virat Kohli 39 ; Jerome Taylor 2/31) lost to West Indies 194/1 in 18.3 overs ( Evin Lewis 125*, Marlon Samuels 36* ; Kuldeep Yadav 1/34) by 9 wickets.