St Kitts, Aug 2 (FN Agency) Obed McCoy broke a host of records as he finished with an astonishing figures of 6/17 from his four overs to bowl out India for 138, leading the hosts to a major victory in the second T20I here on Monday. Devon Thomas, who was unbeaten on 31 off 19 balls, was another hero for the Windies. He cracked two mighty blows in the final over when the Windies needed 10 runs to seal the match. 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.Batting first, India were terrorised by McCoy, who smashed the previous record best haul by a West Indies player in a Men’s T20I contest. He became the fifth West Indian to haul up five wickets or more in a Men’s T20I, going one better than the previous quartet — Keemo Paul (5/15 against Bangladesh), Daren Sammy (5/26 against Zimbabwe), Jason Holder (5/27 against England) and Oshane Thomas (5/28 against Sri Lanka).
McCoy also became the first player to have picked up six wickets against India in any Men’s T20I, breaking Wanindu Hasaranga magnificent 4/9 for Sri Lanka against India in Colombo last year. McCoy’s victims were among some of the best in limited overs cricket, with world class batsmen Rohit Sharma (0) and Ravindra Jadeja (27) among the 25-year-old’s six victims. The Windies star struck with the first ball of the match, sending Rohit packing caught at a deep gully position, before Suryakumar Yadav (11) followed the India captain back to the pavilion on the first ball of McCoy’s second over. Not content with figures of 2/10 from two overs, McCoy returned in the 17th over of India’s innings to deceive Jadeja and collect his third scalp of the match as the hosts continued their dominance. McCoy then completed the rout in his final over by removing Dinesh Karthik (7), Ravichandran Ashwin (10) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1).
It was in the hands of an inconsistent West Indies batsmen to back McCoy’s sterling performance by chasing down India’s below-par total of 138 for the loss of just five wickets and with four deliveries remaining. Opener Brandon King top scored with 68 from 52 balls to inspire a successful Windies run chase. He led the response as he struck 8 boundaries and a pair of massive sixes as he dominated a 46-run, opening stand with Kyle Mayers (8). He added 25 for the second wicket with captain Nicholas Pooran who made 14 before holing out in the deep off off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. This led to a mini-slide as four wickets fell for 53 runs.King, who reached his fourth T20I half-century 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 a memorable win. Brief scores: India 138 all out in 19.4 overs (Hardik Pandya 31; Obed McCoy 6-17) lost to West Indies 141/5 in 19.2 overs (Brandon King 68, Devon Thomas 31*; Hardik Pandya 1-22) by 5 wickets.