Third T20: India beat West Indies by 7 wickets with the help of Suryakumar, Tilak

georgetown (Best Hindu News): Suryakumar Yadav, who has recently been criticized for his failures in ODIs and first two T20 Internationals, played an explosive inning of 83 runs in 44 balls in the third T20 match played at Providence Stadium here on Tuesday. returned, while Tilak Verma scored an unbeaten 49 as India defeated the West Indies by seven wickets.

The win saw India retain their lead in the five-match series and narrow the gap to 2-1.

After the early dismissal of debutant opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, India bounced back quickly with a fine performance from Suryakumar Yadav. He shared an impressive 87-run partnership for the third wicket with Tilak (49 not out).

Brilliant innings from Surya and Tilak helped India chase down the target of 160 in 17.5 overs and revive their hopes in the series after suffering losses in the first two matches.

Chasing a target of 160, India got off to a shaky start as they lost the wicket of Jaiswal early in the very first over. Just then, Yadav came in and quickly launched the onslaught with his big hits.

Verma, who was the top scorer in the last two matches, continued his fine form and started with back-to-back boundaries. Suryakumar and Verma hit three big hits to take the power-play score to 60/2.

Yadav completed his 14th T20 half-century for just 23 runs with a brilliant four. He maintained his aggressive approach and reached the milestone of 100 international sixes by skilfully hitting the slower ball for a magnificent six. Taking that feat forward, he immediately hit a boundary. At half time, India found themselves in a strong position at 97-2.

Surya’s impressive innings came to an end in the 13th over when he guided Alzarri Joseph’s full toss to fine leg, where King remained steady and completed the catch without much difficulty.

Tilak came to the center after Surya’s dismissal and went for some big hits but missed out on his second half-century as skipper Hardik Pandya finished the chase with a maximum score to keep India in the series.

Earlier put into bat, the West Indies got off to a good start with openers Kyle Mayers and Brandon King sharing a 55-run partnership for the first wicket. However, India bounced back with Kuldeep Yadav taking two wickets in one over.

But the hosts were rocked by skipper Rovman Powell, who smashed an unbeaten 40 off 19 balls to take West Indies to 159/5 in 20 overs.

Abbreviated Score :

West Indies 159/5 in 20 overs (Brandon King 42, Rovman Powell 40*; Kuldeep Yadav 3-28) lose to India 164/3 in 17.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 83, Tilak Verma 49 not out; Alzarri Joseph 2-25) by seven wickets.