After a slightly iffy win in the first T20I in Kolkata, the Indian team came romping back to dominate West Indies and march away in the second match in Lucknow on Tuesdayy with a comprehensive margin of 71 runs. The men in blue thus clinched their 7th straight win in a T20I series.
The charge was led by captain Rohit Sharma, who after playing out the first over as a maiden, opened his shoulders and sent the Windies bowlers and fielders on an almighty leather hunt, which ceased only when the final delivery was bowled.
Rohit now is the leading run-scorer for India in T20Is as he overtook Virat Kohli. He has 2203 runs in 86 matches and is second in the world, just after Martin Guptill of New Zealand.
The Indian captain was just getting started; after sussing the conditions he walked all over the Windies attack as he belted his fourth T20I century and became the only person in the world to boast of 4 centuries in this format.
Also, Rohit edged past Kohli as the batsman to have scored the most number of 50+ plus scores in T20I cricket. With the innings in Lucknow, Rohit has 19, while Virat Kohli, who has been rested for this series, has 18 such innings.
'Everyone will go home with a smile'
"Like I said at the toss, not many games have been played here. We wanted to get used to the pitch, hence we took our time. Whenever you get an opportunity you do your best. Everyone who came out to watch the game will go home with a smile," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
It was not a very fluent innings by Shikhar Dhawan, but Rohit said that it was important for the duo to stick around and form a partnership.
"Shikhar's natural instinct is to put pressure on bowlers. We took the time initially and when he gets going it's not easy. I think 120-plus partnership between us was very crucial," the captain said.
After the dominant batting display, the bowlers put in an efficient display and never allowed the visitors to get going and this drew praise from the skipper.
"Bumrah has been one of the premier bowlers for us. We use him different in T20Is then in ODIs. Khaleel is a different bowler with the new ball. It's only helping the team when someone like Khaleel bowls in such a manner," Rohit signed off.
