The West Indies made history in Ranchi on Friday by chasing 250 for a rare T20 International victory against India. The effort, which brought the five-match series level at 1-1, marked the first time a 250-run target has been successfully chased in a Men’s T20I.
Captain Shai Hope won the toss and elected to field first. The Indians took advantage of the surface early, scoring 79-1 in the powerplay.
During this period, Kamil Pooran, in just his second appearance in maroon, dropped Sanju Samson on six, and Samson went on to make the Windies pay. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 82 runs off 41 deliveries and looked set for a century until Shamar Springer had him caught.
Much of his run-scoring came in tandem with Ishan Kishan, who scored a quickfire 43. An 83-run partnership between Tilak Varma and Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer saw India post a mammoth 249-5 after 20 overs. Remarkably, amidst all the carnage, Roston Chase managed figures of 3-24 off his four overs.
The chase could hardly have got off to a worse start, as the visitors lost two wickets in the first over. Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer both fell to the young Mayank Yadav.
Hope was joined by Sherfane Rutherford, and together they hit their team out of trouble. They lit up the Indian bowlers during their partnership, and Hope brought up his 14th T20I half-century in just 23 deliveries.
Yadav went from hero to zero for a moment when he dropped Rutherford on 38. Like Samson before him, Rutherford also made the bowlers pay. He scored 84, as part of a 120-run partnership off just 54 deliveries. Rutherford’s 120-run partnership is WI’s highest for the fourth wicket in T20Is, breaking the record of 103 between Dwayne Bravo and Hetmyer.
Romario Shepherd had pulled up mid-over in the 17th while bowling, but this injury did not seem to inhibit his batting. A 24-run over off Kuldeep Yadav largely turned the game in the Men in Maroon’s favour.
Hope carried his bat to the end, scoring the second-fastest century in T20Is for the West Indies off just 45 balls to see his team home by six wickets with nine deliveries to spare. Hope now has centuries in all three formats of the international game in India. Shepherd finished unbeaten on 34.
501 is the highest cumulative score ever in a T20 international.
