BAS­SETERRE, St Kitts – Obed Mc­Coy pro­duced the best-ever fig­ures by a West In­dies bowler in Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­als be­fore the Caribbean side held their nerve in the fi­nal over to beat In­dia for the first time in near­ly three years and lev­el the five-match se­ries at 1-1, yes­ter­day.

Left-arm seam­er Mc­Coy snatched six for 17 from a bril­liant four-over spell as In­dia, sent in at Warn­er Park, crum­bled for 138 all out off 19.4 overs

Open­er Bran­don King then lashed a top score of 68 from 52 de­liv­er­ies to in­spire a suc­cess­ful West In­dies run chase, De­von Thomas ar­riv­ing at the back end to punch a cru­cial 19-ball un­beat­en 31 to hand the home side a five-wick­et win with four balls to spare.

With West In­dies re­quir­ing ten runs from the last over, Thomas cleared the ropes at ex­tra cov­er with the first le­git­i­mate de­liv­ery of the over from seam­er Avesh Khan be­fore slash­ing the next ball to the back­ward point bound­ary.

The vic­to­ry was the hosts’ first win in six out­ings against In­dia and on­ly their sec­ond in their last 14 dat­ing back to 2018.

“I can fi­nal­ly breathe now,” cap­tain Nicholas Pooran said af­ter­wards.

“It’s been a tough sum­mer for us. We know we have lost a cou­ple of games, a cou­ple of close games as well.

“We made a mess of this to­tal to­day but in say­ing that, In­dia did bowl well in phas­es but I’m re­al­ly hap­py we crossed the line to­day.”

Hardik Pandya top-scored with a run-a-ball 31, Ravin­dra Jade­ja, bat­ting at num­ber six, struck 27 from 30 balls while Rishabh Pant chipped in with a 12-ball 24 but no one else passed 20 as In­dia’s bats­men strug­gled un­char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly.

Mc­Coy struck with the first ball of the game – twice de­layed from its sched­uled 10:30 am start due to the late ar­rival of lug­gage in­to the coun­try – re­mov­ing cap­tain Ro­hit Shar­ma to a catch at short third man off a lift­ing de­liv­ery.

And with the first de­liv­ery of his next over with the score on 17, Mc­Coy had Suryaku­mar Ya­dav (11) nick­ing be­hind – the first three catch­es for Thomas, in his first match in al­most a month.

When Shreyas Iy­er al­so edged be­hind for ten in the fifth over, slash­ing at a pa­cy de­liv­ery from fast bowler Alzarri Joseph and Pant per­ished to a catch at mid-wick­et off left-arm spin­ner Akeal Ho­sein, In­dia was stum­bling on 61 for four in the sev­enth over.

Pandya count­ed one four and two six­es and Jade­ja notched a sin­gle six the pair post­ing 43 for the fifth wick­et – the best stand of the in­nings. Once Pandya holed out in the 14th over off pac­er Ja­son Hold­er, Mc­Coy snatched four of the last five wick­ets to fall as the in­nings col­lapsed.

“It’s a great feel­ing. I’ve been work­ing re­al­ly hard and to be able to per­form against a top side like In­dia, is a great, great feel­ing,” said the 25-year-old Mc­Coy.

“I think when you’re bowl­ing you’ve got to have a clear mind, you go with your plans and you as­sess the con­di­tions – the ground, the wind, every­thing – and you just bowl ac­cord­ing­ly.”

King, who missed the open­er in Trinidad last Fri­day, led West In­dies’ re­sponse, strik­ing eight fours and a cou­ple of six­es as he dom­i­nat­ed a 46-run, open­ing stand with Kyle May­ers (8).

The Ja­maican added a fur­ther 25 for the sec­ond wick­et with Pooran who made 14 be­fore hol­ing out in the deep off off-spin­ner Ravichan­dran Ash­win, spark­ing a slide which saw four wick­ets tum­ble for 53 runs.

King, who reached his fourth T20I fifty off 39 balls at the end of the 12th over, was bowled in the 16th over back­ing away to Avesh but Thomas held his nerve and de­liv­ered. (CMC)

Lug­gage prob­lem

de­lays start of

Windies vs In­dia T20

BAS­SETERRE, Saint Kitts — Crick­et West In­dies pushed back the start of the sec­ond Twen­ty20 in­ter­na­tion­al with In­dia yes­ter­day by two hours be­cause of “sig­nif­i­cant de­lays in cru­cial team lug­gage” ar­riv­ing from Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“CWI re­grets any in­con­ve­nience caused to our val­ued fans, spon­sors, broad­cast part­ners and all oth­er stake­hold­ers,” it said yes­ter­day.

Yes­ter­day’s match was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled to start at 10:30 a.m. lo­cal time.

In­dia beat the West In­dies by 68 runs on Fri­day in Tarou­ba, Trinidad, in the first of five T20s.

“Due to cir­cum­stances be­yond CWI’s con­trol, there have been sig­nif­i­cant de­lays in cru­cial team lug­gage ar­riv­ing in­to St. Kitts from Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the or­ga­ni­za­tion said.

The last two match­es of the T20 se­ries will be played at Lauder­hill in Flori­da. (AP)

SCORES

IN­DIA 138 off 19.overs (Ravin­dra Jade­ja 27, Rishabh Pant 24; Obed Mc­Coy 6-17, Ja­son Hold­er 2-24)

WEST IN­DIES 141 for five off 19.2 overs (Bran­don King 68, De­von Thomas 31 not out; Obed Mc­Coy 6-17, Ja­son Hold­er

Re­sult: West In­dies won by five wick­ets.

Se­ries: Five-match se­ries tied 1-1.

Man-of-the-Match: Obed Mc­Coy

Toss: West In­dies.

Um­pires: Gre­go­ry Brath­waite, Leslie Reifer; TV – Patrick Gus­tard

SCORE­BOARD

West In­dies vs In­dia – 2nd T20I

IN­DIA In­nings

R Shar­ma c Ho­sein b Mc­Coy 0

S Ya­dav c wkp Thomas b Mc­Coy 11

S Iy­er c wkp Thomas b Joseph 10

R Pant c Smith b Ho­sein 24

H Pandya c Smith b Hold­er 31

R Jade­ja c Pow­ell b Mc­Coy 27

D Karthik c Joseph b Mc­Coy 7

R Ash­win c Smith b Mc­Coy 10

B Ku­mar c wkp Thomas b Mc­Coy 1

A Khan b Hold­er 8

A Singh not out 1

Ex­tras (lb4, w4) 8

TO­TAL (all out, 19.4 overs) 138

Fall of wick­ets: 1-0, 2-17, 3-40, 4-61, 5-104, 6-115, 7-127, 8-128, 9-129, 10-138

Bowl­ing: Mc­Coy 4-1-17-6 (w1), Joseph 4-0-29-1, Smith 4-0-43-0 (w1), Ho­sein 4-0-22-1, Hold­er 3.4-0-23-2 (w1)

WEST IN­DIES In­nings

B King b Avesh Khan 68

K May­ers c Ash­win b Pandya 8

N Pooran c Ya­dav b Ash­win 14

S Het­my­er c & b Jade­ja 6

D Thomas not out 31

R Pow­ell b Ar­shdeep Singh 5

O Smith not out 4

Ex­tras (lb2, w1, nb2) 5

TO­TAL (5 wk­ts, 19.2 overs) 141

Did not bat: J Hold­er, A Ho­sein, A Joseph, O Mc­Coy

Wk­ts: 1-46, 2-71, 3-83, 4-107, 5-124.

Bowl­ing: Ku­mar 2-0-12-0, Singh 4-0-26-1 (nb1), Jade­ja 3-0-16-1, Ashin 4-0-32-1, Pandya 4-0-22-1 (w1), Khan 2.2-0-31-1 (nb1)

Re­sult: West In­dies won by five wick­ets.

Se­ries: Five-match se­ries tied 1-1.

Man-of-the-Match: Obed Mc­Coy

Toss: West In­dies.

Um­pires: Gre­go­ry Brath­waite, Leslie Reifer; TV – Patrick Gus­tard

(CMC)