Tactics: How India Outplayed West Indies In The 1st T20I

India vs West Indies: The Rohit Sharma-led side continued their dominance in the limited-overs series against the mighty West Indies as they beat them by six wickets in the 1st T20I played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 

How did India manage to convincingly beat one of the most destructive T20 sides in the world? Let's deep dive. 

The Team Composition

India played 'with five batters, one allrounder', as Rohit Sharma told during the toss. What he meant was India got three pace hitters at the top, one spin hitter in the middle, and two dynamic batters at the end. In the bowling department, India got two powerplay specialists, two death overs specialists, and one middle overs seamer along with two leg spinners. 

West Indies had a heavy batting depth but most of them were pace hitters; three managed spin well out of ten. While in the bowling department, West Indies had one powerplay specialist pacer, two enforcers, and three spin options - two SLAs and an offie. 

India won the toss and opted to bowl first not knowing the par score at the pitch which 'plays differently every time', as Rohit said. Pollard's analyst told 194 was a par score. 

Onfield Tactics 

West Indies opened with an anchor and a pace hitter - Brandon King & Kyle Mayers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar got King with his swing in the first over itself, which brought spin hitter Nicholas Pooran at the crease. 

India bowled Bhuvi (3 overs), Deepak Chahar (2 overs), and Harshal Patel (1 over) in the powerplay and Windies scored 44 runs without losing any further wicket. Most of the damage was done by pace hitter Mayers. 

In the seventh over, Yuzvendra Chahal was brought in and immediately impacted, getting Kyle Mayers out. 7, 8, 9 overs were bowled by two leggies against a spin hitter and a pace hitter. 

As expected, the pace hitter Roston Chase struggled against spin. In the 10th over, Harshal was brought in and was hit for eight runs. In the next over, Bishnoi was brought back and got two wickets in the over - both pace hitters, Chase & new batter Rovman Powell. 

With two back-to-back wickets, Venkatesh Iyer was sneaked in an over as well. In response to India bringing back a pacer at one end (Harshal's 10th), pace hitter Akeal Hosein was sent in. The pressure of two wickets and Bishnoi couldn't help Hosein's case and his attempted shot against Deepak Chahar in the 14th over was caught. 

Chahal and Bishnoi bowled 15, 16, & 17th over which were hit for 31 runs by Pooran and Pollard, but the runs were still not at par for the West Indies. Death overs specialists Harshal and Bhuvi kept things tight in the last three overs and the Windies were restricted to 157/7 in the first innings. 

In the 2nd innings, West Indies missed Jason Holder - the powerplay bowler. Sheldon Cottrell, the powerplay specialist, bowled two overs but didn't get support from the other - Romario Shepherd and Odean Smith. 

Rohit Sharma, the pace hitter, had to do the most of the job as Ishan Kishan was having a rare off day. Rohit smacked 40 off 19 balls to give India the start. However, knowing India's top three's struggle against spin in recent times, Pollard introduced spin early and kept them on till runs dried up for the hosts. 

Rohit, Ishan, and Virat Kohli couldn't dominate the spin for long as India was 95/3 in the 13th over. From 5th over till 13th - Akeal Hosein, Roston Chase, and Fabian Allen operated. 

Spin hitter Rishabh Pant walked in and Pollard brought back pace. The Indian wicketkeeper was out for eight runs, leaving India in a spot of bother. What saved India was two dynamic batters - Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer. 

West Indies' best bet was to keep the pacers going but the duo easily played them out and got India home with seven balls to spare and six wickets remaining. 

At end of the night, Pollard confirmed that 'between overs 6-15 we only scored 46 in 9 overs and if we had 18-20 more runs during that phase it would have been competitive.' 

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India outsmarted West Indies to win the 1st T20I and get a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.