India vs West Indies: Shepherd, King help Windies thrash Men in Blue by 8 wickets, clinch T20I series

Brandon King cracked an unbeaten 85 while Romario Shepherd registered career-best figures of 4/31 as West Indies hammered India by eight wickets to win the five-match T20I series 3-2 in Lauderhill on Sunday.India had entered the decider at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium as the firm favourites after leveling the series with lop-sided victories earlier this week. The Men in Blue, however, ended up getting outplayed in every department by Rovman Powell and company to suffer their first T20I series defeat in two years.Shepherd, who had been the only wicket-taker among the West Indians in India's nine-wicket win on Saturday, triggered a batting collapse in the middle-overs at a time when Suryakumar Yadav (61 off 45) was beginning to mount a fightback.The procession began after Shepherd got rid of India skipper Hardik Pandya (14) in the 17th over, and the seam-bowling all-rounder would end up collecting his maiden four-fer in T20Is by dismissing Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav in successive deliveries in the penultimate over of the innings.The West Indians, in reply, got off to a shaky start after Arshdeep removed opener Kyle Mayers in his first over of the day. The hosts, however, decided to send Nicholas Pooran in ahead of Shai Hope in a move that worked wonders, with the in-form wicketkeeper-batter teeing off right away and building an attacking partnership with King that took the game away from the Indians.King, who brought up his seventh T20I half-century and also completed the century stand for the second wicket with a six off Yuzvendra Chahal, carried on even after Pooran was dismissed by Tilak Verma, and ensured the home team got over the line with plenty of wickets and deliveries left.This is West Indies' second major triumph this year after beating South Africa 2-1 in a three-match away series in January. It's also the first bilateral series win for the Men in Maroon against the Indians in a series comprising three or more matches since 2006, when the Brian Lara-led side prevailed 4-1 in a five-match ODI series.Since then, West Indies had defeated India 1-0 in a two-match T20I series in 2016, and in a one-off T20I the following year.Windies maintain stranglehold on Indian battersWithin 24 hours of producing a batting master-class on a featherbed, the Indian batters, save Suryakumar's scratchy yet effective 61 off 45 balls, posted a sub-par score of 165 for nine after opting to bat on a used track that had become slower.On a pitch where stroke-making wasn't an easy proposition, Surya had to curb his flair a bit but still had enough firepower in his arsenal to hit four fours and three sixes during his knock.In reply, India's nemesis Pooran looked way more fluent but was overshadowed by opener King as they added 107 runs for the second wicket to put West Indies on course despite three weather related interruptions.On same track where the Caribbean bowlers put the Indian batters under tight leash, the bowling attack looked horribly out of depth barring Kuldeep (0/18), who delivered yet another steady performance.Pooran and King cleverly decided to play out Kuldeep's spell and attacked others with disdain. Yuzvendra Chahal (0/51 in 4 overs) had a forgettable day in office.Once the West Indies got 60 in the powerplay, there was no looking back as they maintained the tempo with most of the Indian bowlers pitching it short giving Pooran ample time to tonk them in the arc between the long-on and cow corner.Between Pooran and King, they hit 10 sixes with half a dozen being smashed by the opener.However it was the batting that became India's undoing as they never got the desired momentum during the middle as well as end overs.Even Surya was a bit subdued by his own lofty standards because the slowness didn't allow him to play his natural game.It was a used track where the ball started gripping from the very first over bowled by left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (2/24 in 4 overs), who made an impact against the Indian batters throughout the series.Between him and off-spinner Roston Chase (1/25 in 4 overs), they bowled eight overs for just 49 runs taking three wickets in the process.Yashasvi Jaiswal (5) started with a reverse sweep but Hosein's delivery that stopped and turned with a tad extra bounce forced the batter to offer a simple return catch.Shubman Gill (9) was unlucky as he would have survived had he taken a review with TV replays showing that Hosein's arm ball was drifting down the leg-side.Tilak Varma (27 off 18 balls) was at his fluent best taking 19 off the final powerplay over bowled by Alzarri Joseph. But he also fell prey to the slowness of the track offering Chase a return catch.Tilak's dismissal did become the turning point as far as India's downfall was concerned.This was Surya's 15th T20I fifty but it was on the scratchier side despite some glorious strokes including the six off Joseph over long-off to complete his milestone.But it didn't help as Sanju Samson (13 off 9 deliveries) played a nothing shot without any footwork off Shepherd to put more pressure on Surya.Skipper Pandya couldn't get off the blocks and wasted too many balls before finally connecting one and then perishing off the very next ball as Shepherd used the slower ones to good effect.Pandya's problems did have its effect as Surya couldn't provide the final flourish. Axar Patel (13) and Mukesh Kumar, who hit a final ball boundary, pushed India towards a par-score but that wasn't enough in the end.Brief scores: India 165/9 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 61; Romario Shepherd 4/31, Akeal Hosein 2/24) lost to West Indies 171/2 in 18 overs (Brandon King 85 not out, Nicholas Pooran 47; Tilak Varma 1/17) by eight wickets.