India beat West Indies by six wickets in record Kohli-led chase

India beat West Indies by six wickets on Friday, as the home team successfully chased a target of 208 through the explosive performances of skipper Virat Kohli, who scored 94 off 50 deliveries, and opener K.L. Rahul (62).

India is now 1-0 against the West Indies in the T20 series, which began on Friday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

Led by Kieron Pollard in both formats, the Windies—the 2016 ICC World T20 champions—arrived fresh on the heels of a defeat at the hands of Afghanistan in the T20 format, which came after they swept through the South Asian team in the ODI series.

India won the toss and opted to bowl, with Deepak Chahar delivering in the very first over, taking out Lendl Simmons for two.

Shimron Hetmyer struck a quick half-century as West Indies produced a fine batting display to post a challenging 207 for 5 against India.

An aggressive Hetmyer made 56 off 41 balls, his maiden T20I fifty, which was studded with two boundaries and four hits over the fence to hold West Indies from one end after being sent into bat.

He first added 37 runs with Brandon King (31 off 23 balls) and then shared 71 runs with skipper Kieron Pollard (37 off 19 balls) to lay the base for the West Indies total.

With Shikhar Dhawan injured, K.L. Rahul made his comeback as an opener for India. India, however, made a quiet start to their chase as the first over produced just four runs.

Virat Kohli celebrating after winning the match with a six | PTI

Rahul struck three boundaries off Jason Holder to give impetus to India's chase. 

India were dealt a severe blow in the fourth over when Rohit Sharma (8) picked out Shimron Hetmyer at deep midwicket off the bowling of Khary Pierre with India's scoreboard reading 30 in 3.2 overs. Rahul, however, meant business as he continued his onslaught and struck Sheldon Cotrell and Pierre for two sixes in consecutive overs to take India forward.

Things heated up only around the tenth over, with India scoring over 81 runs between the ninth and 16^th overs. In the 16^th over alone, India scored 23 runs through the combination of Kohli and Risabh Pant.

It was a day of records for Indian batsmen, as Kohli scored his 23^rd T20I half-century to surpass Rohit Sharma as the holder of the most T20I fifties, and set his record best-ever score in T20Is of 94 not-out. Opener Rahul made his 7th T20I 50 off 37 deliveries and became the seventh Indian batsman to complete 1,000 T20I runs; the combined performance giving India its highest-ever successful T20I run chase.

Kohli, 22 for 22 at one point, found his groove only after being angered by the pressure and by the Windies bowlers. An angered Kohli is a devastating batsman, and the skipper went on to achieve a strike rate of 188, hitting 94 runs off 50 balls.

There were several iconic Kohli moments in the match; from the skipper following up his six off Pollard with a deathly-cold stare to performing the notebook-signing gesture in the explosive 16th over against Kesrick Williams—the same one that Williams used in the Caribbean Premier League after dismissing Chadwick Walton. After the match, Kohli said Williams had performed the gesture after dismissing him in 2017.

Altogether, Kohli hit six sixes and six fours during the match, taking away the player of the match award.

Rishabh Pant made 18 off nine deliveries but, once again, threw away his wicket.

Windies gave away 23 extra deliveries during the match. Indian fielders too had their share of misfortune, dropping several catches.

The second T20I will be played at Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. The three-T20 series will be followed by an ODI series that begins on December 15.

With inputs from PTI