Iyer Leads from the Front: 102 Not Out off 43, and India Chase 172 with 32 Balls to Spare

A new captain is always watched for what he does with the toss, the field and the bowling changes. Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl first in Lucknow, and for most of the evening that was the only decision anyone could question. Then he walked out at 35 for 2 in the fourth over of the chase and took the question away entirely. He made 102 not out from 43 balls, with ten fours and six sixes, and by the time he was done India had chased 172 in 14.4 overs.

West Indies 171 all out in 19.1 overs. India 172 for 2 in 14.4 overs. India won by eight wickets with 32 balls remaining and lead the five-match series 1-0. Three days after Shai Hope's 162 not out had chased down 352 at Mullanpur, the visitors found that the shorter format offers less time to recover from a bad half-hour, and they had two of them.

India's chase began quickly and wobbled briefly. Abhishek Sharma hit three fours and a six in his 21 from 10 balls before Roston Chase had him caught by Shimron Hetmyer at 29 in the third over. Sanju Samson followed an over later, caught and bowled by Akeal Hosein for 11, and at 35 for 2 there was a small window for West Indies.

Iyer shut it. The powerplay ended at 62 for 2; India were 102 for 2 at the ten-over drinks break with Iyer on 45. He reached fifty from 28 balls with eight fours and no sixes — a measured innings by the standards of what followed — and then went through the gears. The second fifty took 14 balls, and the six sixes all came in it. The hundred arrived from his 42nd ball. Ishan Kishan, at the other end, played the perfect supporting part: 37 not out from 27, five fours, never trying to match his captain. Their stand of 137 came from 68 balls, and India needed only 14.4 overs in all.

The bowling had set it up. Naman Dhir's off-breaks were the best figures of the night, 3 for 31 from four overs: he removed Hope, Romario Shepherd and Shamar Springer. Kuldeep Yadav took 2 for 33 and also accounted for Rutherford, the one batter who had looked capable of taking West Indies past 190. Axar Patel bowled a maiden in his 3.1 overs, removed Rovman Powell for a three-ball duck, and finished the innings.

The scorecard reads like three different innings. West Indies were 38 for 0 in the fifth over before Arshdeep Singh bowled Kamil Pooran for 12, and then 44 for 3 by the end of the sixth: Hetmyer was run out by Iyer and Samson, and Powell was bowled by Axar. The second innings within the innings belonged to Hope and Rutherford, who added 63 from 35 balls and took the score to 107 for 3 in the 12th over. Hope's 52 came from 37 balls; Rutherford's 56 from 34, with three sixes.

Then came the third collapse: from 107 for 3, West Indies lost Hope, Chase, Shepherd and Matthew Forde for 17 runs in two and a half overs to be 124 for 7. Rutherford and the tail — Hosein made 15 from 9 — dragged it to 171, but the last two wickets fell on 171 and the innings lasted only 19.1 overs. The lesson is the one T20 cricket teaches most cruelly: a team with this much power can survive one collapse, not two. With the ball, only Hosein (1 for 37 in four overs) and Chase (1 for 37) took wickets; Forde's two overs cost 39.

Our preview expected a true surface with a quick outfield, and dew in the second innings, and the evidence points that way: India scored at nearly twelve an over in the chase and lost only two wickets, while West Indies' wickets largely came from misjudgements and spin rather than a surface doing much. Batting first on a dewy evening and setting 172 was probably 20 or 30 short; scoring 171 after the middle-order slide meant it never got the chance to find out. India's choice to field first looks, in hindsight, exactly right.

There is a particular kind of innings that comes from a batter with nothing to prove and everything to set up. Iyer's was that. The first 28 balls were about control — eight fours and not a single six, the field moved around and the boundary found anyway. The next 15 were about intent, the sixes coming one after another once the target had shrunk to something that could be finished before the dew truly arrived. A captain's hundred in the first match of a five-match series sets a tone that no team meeting can.

Iyer also had a hand in the field: it was his throw, with Samson behind the stumps, that ran out Hetmyer for 5 in the sixth over, the second of three wickets that fell for six runs and turned a strong West Indies start into a scramble.

Our preview called India favourites at home while warning that this was a less experienced group under a new captain whose structured style would be tested by the format. India won, and the captain answered the question himself. We also flagged dew as the evening's talking point, and the chase bore that out. Our two players to watch did not deliver: Mayank Yadav, whom we expected to produce the most electric passage of the series, went for 40 in his four overs with one wicket, and our West Indies pick, Nicholas Pooran, was not in the XI — it was Kamil Pooran who opened and made 12. We did not name Naman Dhir or Iyer the batter as likely match-winners. That is a miss we'll own.

The series moves to Ranchi for the 2nd T20I on October 9, then Indore (Oct 11), Hyderabad (Oct 14) and Bengaluru (Oct 17). For India, the questions are pleasant ones: whether Abhishek and Samson can convert brisk starts, and whether Mayank finds his rhythm. For West Indies, the fix is about the overs between the powerplay's end and the death — Hope and Rutherford showed the runs are there, but the side needs a fifth and sixth batter who can absorb a wicket instead of becoming the next one. They chased 352 last week. They are a side that does not need much encouragement to believe.