West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran finally breathed a sigh of relief after his team won the second T20I against India by five wickets at the Warner Park. Basseterre, St Kitts on Monday. The Windies did a fantastic job in wrapping up the Indian innings at 138 runs.
Obed McCoy was the pick of the West Indies bowlers as he dismissed Rohit Sharma on the first ball of the game. The lanky pacer then accounted for Suryakumar Yadav to push India on the backfoot. McCoy also picked four more wickets at the fag end of the innings to restrict India under 140.
On the other hand, Brandon King scored 68 runs from 52 balls to help West Indies get close to the target but Pooran reckons the batter should have batted till the end. Devon Thomas had added the finishing touches as he scored 31 runs from 19 balls but Pooran feels they should have been more clinical with the bat.
In fact, West Indies had lost the first two ODIs against India after closely-fought contests and Pooran was gald that his team was finally able to get over the line in the second T20I.
Nicholas Pooran said in the post-match presentation, “I can finally breathe now. It has been a tough summer for us. We lost a few close games and nearly made a mess of this as well. Obed was fantastic and all the guys just used the pitch and the conditions well. A win is a win. I believe in T20, better batsmen have to bat long. Myself, Hetmyer can take more responsibility. King should have won the game for us with the way he was batting. But hopefully he will learn from this. Thomas returned back for us after injury and came out trumps on his home ground. Obed is a bit of a freak and today he was just fantastic. He just kept picking up wickets for us. He said he would bowl full and straight on the stumps to Dinesh Karthik and it worked. Lovely to have him in the team and have that left-arm action for us.”
Meanwhile, Obed McCoy dedicated his Player of the Match performance to his mom, who has been sick. McCoy was able to breathe down the neck of the Indian batters with extra bounce and pace.The lanky paceman returned with impressive figures of 6-17, which is the best bowling performance for any West Indies bowler in T20I cricket.
McCoy said in the post-match presentation, “This is for my mom. She is sick and she has motivated me to be a better player. The first ball wicket put pressure on the batsmen. I always look for wickets in the powerplay. I went in with a clean mind. In the previous game I was overthinking a bit. It gives me a challenge and I am just thankful for all the experiences and the challenges.”
The third T20I will be played at the same venue on Tuesday.
