Sharma, Karthik lead India to victory

India extended their white ball dominance over the West Indies with a comprehensive 68-run victory in the opening fixture of a five-match T20 International series at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Friday.

The tourists posted 190 for six batting before easily restricting the home side to 122 for eight in reply.

Captain Rohit Sharma top-scored with 64 off 44 balls and Dinesh Karthik then gave the innings important late impetus with an unbeaten 41 off just 19 balls.

A similarly rampaging start to the West Indies’ chase by Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks – they belted 22 runs off the first eight balls of the innings.

Spinners Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi also had too much guile in picking up two wickets each against a West Indies batting line-up which struggled to build any sort of momentum.

Brooks’s 20 was the best effort of a mediocre batting performance, leaving West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran to contemplate on yet another implosion by his team, two days after being thrashed by 119 runs in the last match of the ODI series. – AFP