India won the opening T20 against West Indies in Florida, but not before some hiccups on their way to a four-wicket triumph on Saturday.
On a sluggish pitch at Lauderhill, the Windies struggled to 95-9 with debutant fast bowler Navdeep Saini picking up 3-17. Kieron Pollard held the innings together with 49 but got out in the final over, which turned out to be a wicket maiden from Saini.
But if India thought it was going to be walk in the park, they were mistaken. Left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell took the important wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and then Virat Kohli (19) as the visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Bowlers to bowl the 20th over as maiden in T20Is:
— ESPNcricinfo stats (@ESPNcric_stats) August 3, 2019
Jeetan Patel, NZ v WI, 2008
Mohd Amir, Pak v Aus, 2010
Janak Prakash, S'pore v Qatar, 2019
Navdeep Saini, Ind v WI, today#IndvWI
Timely knocks from Manish Pandey (19), Krunal Pandya (12) and Ravindra Jadeja (10) ensured India crossed the finish line six wickets down and with 16 balls to spare. Keemo Paul (2-23) and Sunil Narine (2-14) kept India’s batting in check.
It was a far from clinical batting effort from India and they will get another chance on Sunday in the second match at the same venue.
Earlier, Saini made a big impact on debut. He was hit for a six by Nicholas Pooran off just his second ball but hit back with two wickets in two balls, first getting Pooran to sky a top edge to the keeper and then getting Shimron Hetmyer bowled first ball.
But the damage had already been before that. Opening bowlers Washington Sundar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the West Indies back, removing openers John Campbell and Evin Lewis before Saini’s blows reduced the hosts to 28-4.
Kumar finished with two scalps as all six of India’s bowlers were among the wickets.
