Rohit sets records as India cruise once more against Windies

By Sports Desk July 29, 2022

Rohit Sharma made T20I history as India maintained their sensational white-ball form with a 68-run victory in the series opener against West Indies. 

India won the ODI series 3-0 and continued in the same vein in the shortest format as Rohit claimed possession of a pair of records. 

He led the way with 64 off 44 balls, surpassing Martin Guptill for the most runs in men's T20I cricket when he took his innings into the 20s. 

Rohit's half-century saw him take outright possession of the record for the most scores of 50-plus in T20Is. 

This made it 31 such scores for Rohit, who laid the foundation for Dinesh Karthik to power India to 190-6 in the closing overs with 41 not out from just 19 deliveries. 

The Windies struck 22 off the first eight balls of their reply, but a strong start quickly gave way to a collapse. 

Nicholas Pooran's side lost seven wickets for 64 runs as India's strength in depth with the ball came to the fore with Ravichandran Ashwin the star of the show. 

Akeal Hosein (11) provided some lower-order resistance that was always in vain and was ended by Arshdeep Singh's yorker as India wrapped up a dominant win.  

Record-breaker Rohit

Rohit now has 3,443 T20I runs to his name having gone past Guptill on 3,399. 

He had been level with Virat Kohli, rested for this tour, with 30 scores of 50 or more in T20Is but broke the tie and went top of the leaderboard with his first 50 since November 2021 against New Zealand. 

Spinners frustrate Windies

Seven Windies batters reached double figures, including tailender Keemo Paul, who made the margin of defeat more respectable with his 19 not out after the game was ended as a contest. 

But it was a case of too many players failing to build on starts as India's spinners controlled the scoring and took regular wickets, Ashwin bowling 13 dot balls and giving up only two boundaries in his 2-22.    

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    Data Debrief: India just too strong

    Gll sped to his half-century in just 36 balls, earning his first 50 as India's T20I captain.

    Despite their strong batting display, India were also the beneficiaries of 31 runs after Zimbabwe struggled to take their chances out on the field. The eventual win margin for India: 23. 

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