Kolkata, Mar 1 (.) With Jasprit Bumrah picking up two crucial wickets in the space of three balls, India restricted West Indies to 195 for four in a Group 1 Super 8 clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the iconic Eden Gardens here on Sunday.
Put into bat, West Indies started with a newly-minted opening partnership of Shai Hope and Roston Chase, who were uncharacteristically watchful in the beginning and finished the powerplay at 45/0.
It was Chase’s first T20I as an opener, and after a cautious beginning, he got going with two sweetly-timed boundaries against Arshdeep Singh and then scooped Jasprit Bumrah for a four.
The pressure of the occasion, however, seemed to get to Abhishek Sharma, who dropped a simple catch at cover with Chase on 15.

Varun Chakaravarthy gave India the breakthrough as he knocked back Shai Hope’s (32) stumps in the ninth over. But it was Jasprit Bumrah’s double strike in the 12th over, which saw the dismissal of set batters Shimron Hetmyer (27) and Roston Chase (40), that could potentially prove to be crucial in deciding the outcome of the match.

Hetmyer was starting to flex his muscle, and had hit two sixes and a four, but ended up nicking a ball angling away from him to the wicketkeeper. Two balls later, Bumrah had Chase lob the ball to cover.

After West Indies slipped from 102/2 to 119/4, Jason Holder and Rovman Powell took the attack to India. The latter also became the first West Indies batsman to hit 150 sixes in T20Is, when he let go another big hit to the fence.
Earlier, India chose to stick with the XI that won them the game against Zimbabwe three days back. The Zimbabwe game was the first of the four must-win matches for India to keep their hopes alive for proceeding to the semi-final after the defeat to South Africa last Sunday.
West Indies made one change to the XI that lost to South Africa in their last match. They left out opener Brandon King for the left-arm spin of allrounder Akeal Hosein.. . .