‘Toh ye hai India ki young team?’ – Fans fume as India lose 1st T20I against West Indies by 4 runs

The 1st match of the 5-match T20I series between India and West Indies was played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Thursday, August 3. The Caribbean side displayed a brilliant bowling performance and defeated the Men in Blue by 4 runs. They are now ahead 1-0 in the series.

Talking about the match, West Indies opted to bat first after winning the toss. They started well with opener Brandon King. But the introduction of veteran spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the 5th over of the 1st innings saw both the openers King and Kyle Mayers dismissed in 3 balls. 

Pooran came to bat at the no. 4 position but he took some time to settle down and showed a lot of respect to Kuldeep Yadav, but after seeing him out, he started hitting some boundaries but pulled one shot into the wind and was caught by deep mid-wicket on the score of 41 runs. That was a major turning point but West Indies captain Rovman Powell took over and smashed 48 runs off just 32 balls and took his team to a fighting total of 149 runs.

Poor batting performance by India

Arshdeep Singh bowled brilliantly despite playing an international match after a few months. He and Chahal picked up 2 wickets each while skipper Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep managed to get 1 wicket each for the team. Looking at the batting order of India, it was expected that they would achieve the target easily but that didn’t happen.

Chasing the target, India suffered two major setbacks inside the powerplay when both their openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill departed on just 28 runs. The no, 1 ranked T20I batter in the world Suryakumar Yadav and debutant Tilak Varma steadied the ship and stitched a 39-run stand for the 3rd wicket. But both of them departed at the crucial stage. 

Skipper Pandya and Samson then looked great in the middle but got themselves in the pavilion when things started getting serious. Arshdeep tried hard in the end but couldn’t help the team to win the match.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Nowadays these players are flat Pitch bully scored when flat Pitch in 3rd ODI exposed in other matches

— Rahul Sharma (@RahulSh24082787) August 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/I_say_factos/status/1687166441358024704?s=20

https://twitter.com/YASHDIPRAUT/status/1687166500669620224?s=20

Thats why India needs Rinku in the team

— Prashant (@Prashantweets7) August 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/Deep12955533/status/1687166556823072768?s=20

Khela inse jaa nahi raha hai aur service inko 5 star chahiye.

— Dr. JANGO (@doctor_jango) August 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/SwatiJaisw13521/status/1687166982209363968?s=20

Lol that's was an easy chase still bottled

— Johnmuffa (@ictblood) August 3, 2023