India vs Windies 2018: Very Important to Take Wickets - Kuldeep Yadav

India has won the first T20I match of the three-match series against Windies by five wickets and Kuldeep Yadav picked up three wickets to rattle the Windies middle order. Earlier in the day Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first. Windies opening pair couldn’t put up a good show as they lost their first wicket on the first ball of the third over.

Windies youngster Shai Hope returned into the side as Andre Russell couldn’t play the match due to an injury. However, there was a comedy of error that happened in the middle as Shai Hope got run-out. It was a disappointing end to what was turning out to be a nice little start. KL Rahul nearly made a mess of a simple throw, thankfully for him and India, Manish Pandey was alert, and he got the stumps down.

Windies, however, posted a score of 109 runs at the end of 20th overs. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers as his figures turned out to be 4-0-13-3.

India was able to draw first blood.

While chasing down the target, India couldn’t put up a good start. They lost the first three wickets within the powerplay, and the pressure started building on the middle-order batsman. Kl Rahul who was looking good to score runs went back into the pavilion as Brathwaite removed him with a superb delivery. Later, the duo of Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik added some vital 38 runs to reduce the pressure for India.

Moreover, just after the wicket of Pandey, debutant Krunal Pandya added quick 21 runs off nine balls to end the game within the 18th over. Krunal Pandya’s had an excellent outing on debut, and he was also able to hit the winning runs. India leads the three-match T20I series 1-0. Kuldeep Yadav was declared as Man of the Match.

“Very important to take wickets. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s my aim. The first wicket (of Bravo) was the one I cherished. It’s the ball I’m working on (faster one). Just bowl it to contain runs as well,” Kuldeep Yadav said in the post-match presentation.

India and the Windies will take on each other on November 6 in the second T20I.