Credit: Twitter
The stand-in captain for Team India, Hardik Pandya picked up a couple of big wickets to give Team India a fiery start in the first over of the West Indies innings on August 5, Saturday. At the Providence Stadium, India had set a reasonable target of 153 for the hosts to chase down, to take the 2-0 lead in the five match T20I series.
On the first ball of the innings, Hardik Pandya bowled a fuller length delivery, which swung away, to entice the drive on the up from Brandon King. The right-handed opener went through with the stroke after getting a nice stride in, but he managed to find Suryakumar Yadav at covers, who took a smart catch diving down to his right side.
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Then, the 29-year-old bowled another fuller length delivery on the fourth ball of the first over, swinging away from the right-handed batter. Johnson Charles, who wasn’t quite to the pitch of the ball, tried to reach out for it, but he only managed to hit it straight to the fielder at cover-point where Tilak Varma completed a relatively easy catch.
Watch the video of Hardik Pandya picking up two quick wickets in the first over here:
At 2-2, after the dismissals of Brandon King for no score and Johnson Charles for 2, Team India got a perfect beginning in their quest to level the ongoing T20I series against the West Indies. But, as of this writing, at the end of the powerplay, West Indies got themselves back into the match, thanks to the fiery display of batting from Nicholas Pooran.
Earlier in the day, India got to the score of 152/7 in their allotted 20 overs, after the newest debutant Tilak Varma got his first fifty in international cricket. The 20-year-old scored 51 runs off 41 deliveries, which included five fours and a maximum.
