Match Analysis: West Indies’ narrow win against India in the 2nd T20I

A one-off victory in the first T20 international wasn’t enough to convince the spectators on the comeback that the West Indies were providing. But an even more convincing performance in the 2nd T20 has got the fans talking on a resurgence from the West Indies’ side. It was another close encounter between IND and WI with the bowlers once again having a fantastic outing. Only two batsmen crossed the 30-run mark on a slow and sluggish surface. We are going to analyze the batting performance of both the teams across the three phases of play.

Before we start with the analysis, we wanted to give a small intro to the following metric. The Non-Boundary Strike rate metric measures the strike rate of the team while not accounting for the runs scored in boundaries. It’s an interesting metric which gives an indication of the runs they scored between the wickets and the dots that they have consumed. A better strike rate gives an indication that the team consumes lesser dots and scores more runs by running between the wickets.

India’s Innings Progression

India’s innings began on a low, with them losing Gill early on due to a false stroke. Then followed SuryaKumar Yadav who got into an unfortunate run out. Tilak Varma and Kishan steadied the ship, but India were able to manage only 34 runs in the powerplay. They not only had a high balls per boundary, but they also consumed a lot of dots since their non boundary strike rate was just shy of 44.

They steadied the ship in the middle overs, by scoring at 8.1 runs an over and at a higher non-boundary strike rate. But they lost 3 wickets in this phase and couldn’t create a significant partnership. A decent finish from Bishnoi and Arshdeep ensured that India breached the 150-run mark. But the start in the powerplay and losing wickets regularly affected their batting progression throughout.

West Indies’ Innings Progression

West Indies began their innings on an even slippery note. They lost two wickets within the first over, thanks to a wonderful display of swing bowling from Hardik Pandya, and the new batsmen had to face the moving ball. The one thing West Indies nailed in the powerplay was to capitalize on the field and score the bulk of runs even after losing 2 wickets quickly. Nicholas Pooran took on Ravi Bishnoi and the pacers and he ensured that his team didn’t stay behind the run rate. They had a fantastic ball per boundary value of just 3 which neutralized their low non-boundary strike rate.

India came back well in the middle overs and conceded a boundary every 10 balls. They accounted for 5 wickets, with West Indies on the road to a major collapse. The duo of Akeal Hosein and Alzaari Joseph ensured that the West Indies got home safe.

Nicholas Pooran’s Pitch Map

Nicholas Pooran is in the form of his life. With this knock, he emerged as the highest run getter against India in the T20I format. Let us also look at Pooran’s innings in detail by exploring his pitch map against both pacers and spinners. The green dots denote the boundaries, blue dots denote runs between the wickets and purple dots denote dot deliveries.

The pitch map gives a good look on how he paced his innings. He was quiet against those deliveries that were bowled at the stumps or around the 4th stump channel against the pacers and targeted those deliveries which were either short or a full toss. The Indian pacers failed at executing more consistent and tighter lines, but one cannot disagree on the fact that Pooran’s striking was just a sight to behold.

Against spinners, Pooran read the googly skillfully and targeted deliveries that were bowled at a fuller length irrespective of the line. He had a strike rate of 220 against googly and 120 against leg spin. Some of his dot deliveries where an attempt to play the big shot but he missed out on the timing. Overall, a very aggressive innings and a much needed one for the West Indian Team.