West Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard believes his side needed to put more runs on the board if they were to have had a chance to beat India in the first of three T20 internationals at Kolkata today (February 16).

Batting first, the West Indies made 157-7, thanks mainly to 61 from Nicholas Pooran.

Off to a shaky start after Brandon King was dismissed in the opening over for four, Pooran and Kyle Mayers took the West Indies to 51-1 in the seventh over.

EXPERIMENT FAILED

Things then went awry and the run-rate slowed after Mayers was dismissed for 31 and an uncertain Roston Chase was dismissed for four as the West Indies slipped to 72-3 in the 11th over. It would get worse as, three balls later, Rovman Powell was gone for two. Both batters were dismissed by debutant Ravi Bishnoi, who finished with figures of 2-17.

Akeal Hosein was promoted up the order but that experiment failed as he was soon out for 10.

Pollard and Pooran added 45 for the sixth wicket which ended when Pooran was finally out leaving Pollard and Odean Smith to add 22 at the death before the latter was dismissed off the last ball of the innings.

“If I’m being honest, between overs 6 to 15 we scored too few runs. We were 15-20 runs short but if you take early wickets you can put them under pressure,” Pollard said afterwards.

“Those nine overs for 46 runs, if we had another 15-20 in that block there… it’s a matter of setting it up properly. We can dissect it ’til kingdom come but we have to execute.”

India were quick out of the gates in search of 158 runs, scoring 64 by the eighth over when Rohit Sharma, who hit four fours and three sixes on his way to 40 from 19 balls, became the first Indian wicket to fall.

TEAM PRAISED FOR SHOWING FIGHT

However, with India looking like they were going to run away with the match, the West Indies struck back with the wickets of Ishan Kishan for 35, Virat Kohli for 17 and Risbah Pant for eight as India slipped to 114-4 mid-way the 15th over.

The home team then reasserted control of the game through Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer, who remained unbeaten on 34 and 24, respectively as they took India to victory with a fifth wicket partnership of 48.

Notwithstanding the outcome, Pollard praised his team for the fight they showed.

“Good game of cricket overall, getting down to the 19th over was good on the part of the bowlers.”