IND vs WI, 1st T20I: Virat Kohli's unbeaten knock of 94 guides India to six-wicket win over West Indies in Hyderabad

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Dec 06, 2019, 11:39 PM IST

@BCCI:

With this victory, the home side now have a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.

Skipper Virat Kohli and opener Kl Rahul played prolific knocks to help India secure a six wickets win over West Indies in the first T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday.

Kohli played an unbeaten knock of 94 runs off deliveries with Rahul smashing 62 runs.

With this victory, the home side now have a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.

Upon winning the toss, India decided to send West Indies in to bat first who got off to a decent start.

It was Deepal Chahar who struck first for India, removing Lendl Simmons early on as the Windies stood on 13/1 after the first two overs.

Opener Evin Lewis took off after that, smashing 40 runs off 17 delivers before Washington Sundar picked up his first wicket of the match during the 5th over.

It was Brandon King and Shimron Hetmyer's effective partnership which took the visitors over the 100 run mark after the first 10 overs of the innings.

King was looking in top touch but spinner Ravindra Jadeja, on his birthday, dismissed the batsman on 31 runs with West Indies on 101/3 after 10.1 overs.

However, when the Windies skipper Kieron Pollard came out to bat next Hetmyer took his game to another level.

The 22-year-old played some fantastic shots on his way to his well-deserved half-century.

The pair knitted together a 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed both Hetmyer (56) and Pollard (37) in the same over.

Midfielders Jason Holder and Denesh Ramdin came in and played a quickfire unbeaten innings of 24 and 11 runs to help West Indies post 207/5 from their 20 overs.

On the chase, India got off to a quick start before opener Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Khary Pierre for 8 runs as the 30-run partnership for the first wicket came to an end in the fourth over.

Skipper Virat Kohli joined Rahul in the middle and the pair smashed a 100-run partnership for the second wicket.

During the game, Rahul also surpassed the 1000-run mark in T20I cricket and became the seventh Indian cricketer to do achieve this landmark.

However, his top knock of 62 runs off 40 balls was brought to an end by Pierre in the 14th over.

Rishabh Pant came and helped Kohli keep the scoreboard ticking.

The Indian skipper also secured his 36-ball half-century for the home side, knocking together a partnership of 48 runs for the third wicket.

Sheldon Cottrell soon dismissed Pant (18) in the 17th over, as India lost their third wicket on the chase.

Shreyas Iyer also lasted for just six deliveries before Kieron Pollard pulled off a brilliant catch to dismiss him in the 18th over for 4 runs.

Kohli played a captain's knock and remained unbeaten on 94 runs off 50 balls, guiding India to a six-wicket victory with eight balls to spare.