After registering a comprehensive 68-run win against West Indies in the first T20I, India captain Rohit Sharma praised Men in Blue's all-round performance and said 'it was a great effort.'
Tight bowling by India, led by Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi's two-wicket haul respectively helped Men in Blue to defeat West Indies by 68 runs in the first T20I of the five-match series against West Indies, here at Brian Lara Stadium on Friday.
"We want to do certain things when things, and I think we are able to achieve certain things. All in all, it was a great effort. We want to continue doing that. But again we need to understand what sort of pitch we play on," Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
"Certain pitches will not allow you to do that. So. you will have to take a backward step and see how you can play in those over. The guys have a lot of skill, they have played on all sorts of pitches back home. They just need to back those skillsets. The Indian team has received very good support here in West Indies and we want to provide them with entertaining cricket," he added.
The top batting order of the team could not do much and collapsed with Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya scoring 0, 14 and 1 respectively. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma played a brilliant innings of 64 runs and in the end, Dinesh Karthik scored 41 runs in explosive style to take India to 190.
Talking about the assessment of the playing conditions, Rohit Sharma said, "The nature of the pitch, we knew was slightly going to be tough. The shot-making was not easy at the start. At the same time, we do understand that the guys who are set need to carry on as long as possible. There was some grip for the spinners. The odd variation wasn't easy to pick.
"The nature of the pitch was slow. It was not easy. The way we finished off the first innings, getting to 190 was great. I really thought this wasn't the pitch where you could get 170-180 when we were batting in the first half of the innings. But we hung in there, backed our skills and got more than a par score," he added.
Talking about the crowd and the support team receives in West Indies, the India captain said, "I love playing here in West Indies. The Indian team always receives great support from the Indian crowd coming in from the USA and also the local crowd here, quite superb to get such support."
India will take on the West Indies on August 1 in the second T20I.
( With inputs from ANI )
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