250 chased with nine balls to spare: West Indies' record night exposes India's bowling and asks hard questions of Iyer

For one innings, Ranchi belonged to India. Sanju Samson's 82, Tilak Varma's late assault and 13 sixes carried them to 249 for 5, the highest T20I total ever made at the JSCA International Stadium. It was the kind of score that wins almost every T20I.

It did not win this one. West Indies reached 252 for 4 with nine balls to spare, a six-wicket win that levelled the five-match series at 1-1 and ended India's ten-match winning run. According to Outlook India, it was the second-highest successful chase in T20I history and the highest West Indies have ever made.

The chase belonged to Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford. The defeat belonged to India's bowlers, and to some decisions their captain will be asked about before Sunday's game in Indore.

IND vs WI 2nd T20I: the scores

• India 249/5 in 20 overs: Sanju Samson 82 (41), Tilak Varma 44* (18), Ishan Kishan 43 (22), Shreyas Iyer 40 (18); Roston Chase 3/24
• West Indies 252/4 in 18.3 overs: Shai Hope 102* (45), Sherfane Rutherford 84 (37), Romario Shepherd 34* (13); Mayank Yadav 3/36
• Result: West Indies won by 6 wickets with 9 balls remaining
• Series: level at 1-1, with three games to play

The chase that should never have happened

At 5 for 2 after the first over, this looked over. Mayank Yadav removed Kamil Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer in his opening over, and when he bowled Rovman Powell with a 149.5 kph delivery early in the sixth over, West Indies were 58 for 3 and needed almost 13 an over for the rest of the innings.

What followed was the best batting of the series. Hope, who made 52 in Lucknow, reached his fifty off 25 balls and kept going. Rutherford, who top-scored in the first game with 56, was even more brutal: his fifty came off 28 balls, and he hit seven sixes in his 84 off 37. Together they added more than 120 for the fourth wicket, and by the end of the 10th over West Indies were 122 for 3, almost exactly level with India's 127 for 1 at the same stage.

Kuldeep Yadav finally broke the stand when Samson caught Rutherford in the 15th over, but by then the damage was done. West Indies needed 63 off the last 30 balls. They got them in 21. Hope brought up his hundred in the final overs and finished unbeaten on 102 off 45, with nine sixes, and Romario Shepherd's 34 off 13 made sure the finish was never in doubt.

Twenty sixes and 81 percent in boundaries

The numbers from the chase tell the story of a night when India's bowlers had nowhere to hide:

• West Indies hit 20 sixes and 21 fours. That is 204 of their 252 runs, around 81 percent, in boundaries.
• Hope (9) and Rutherford (7) alone hit 16 sixes, three more than India managed as a team.
• From 58 for 3, West Indies scored 194 runs in 13.2 overs, a rate of more than 14 an over.
• The match produced 501 runs and 33 sixes. The two totals are the two highest ever made in a T20I in Ranchi, where the previous best was 196.

India's bowling: one good spell and little else

Mayank Yadav was the only Indian bowler who looked like taking wickets, and even he went at 12 an over. Everyone else was punished:

• Mayank Yadav: 3-0-36-3
• Arshdeep Singh: 4-0-45-0
• Kuldeep Yadav: 4-0-53-1
• Axar Patel: 3.3-0-63-0
• Shivam Dube: 2-0-30-0
• Naman Dhir: 2-0-25-0

Without Mayank, India's bowlers conceded 216 runs in 15.3 overs, almost 14 an over, and took one wicket between them. Axar, India's most economical bowler in Lucknow with 2 for 26, went for 18 an over. Kuldeep's last over cost 24 runs. Naman Dhir, the hero of the first game with 3 for 31, could not repeat it.

The bigger worry is that this is not new. In the ODI series against this same West Indies side, India conceded 1,052 runs in three matches. Lucknow looked like a correction. Ranchi suggests it was the exception. With Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakravarthy all missing this series, the attack has no one to turn to when a plan stops working.

Questions for Shreyas Iyer

Iyer has done almost everything right since taking over: Asian Games gold, a hundred in Lucknow, and 40 off 18 here. But a captain is judged on nights like this, and three decisions stand out.

The first is Mayank Yadav's fourth over. He took three wickets in his first three overs, bowled at close to 150 kph and was the only bowler West Indies had not got on top of. He never bowled again after the sixth over. As Hope and Rutherford took the game away through the middle, and as West Indies needed 63 off the last five, India's most dangerous bowler had an over left in his pocket.

The second is the sixth bowler. Shivam Dube's two overs went for 30, and Axar finished with 3.3 overs for 63, at 18 an over. With Ravi Bishnoi on the bench, India picked an XI with only two specialist spinners and turned to part-time overs on a night when wickets were the only thing that would stop West Indies.

The third is the plan, or the lack of one, for Hope and Rutherford. Both had already scored fifties against India in Lucknow, and Hope made a hundred against them in the ODI series. India still bowled into their hitting areas, and the two of them cleared the rope 16 times between them.

None of this is to say Iyer lost the match on his own. West Indies batted brilliantly, and 250 should have been enough with any reasonable bowling. But the captain sets the bowling plan, and on Friday the plan ran out long before the target did.

Samson's answer to his critics

There was one clear positive for India. Sanju Samson came into the game with his place under scrutiny and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi waiting. He answered with a 21-ball fifty and 82 off 41, including nine fours and four sixes, and he survived an early drop by Kamil Pooran at cover. He and Kishan put on 93 for the second wicket, and Tilak's 44 off 18 at the end showed India's batting depth. For the batters, there is nothing to fix.

What comes next

The series moves to Indore for the third T20I on Sunday, 11 October, at 7 PM IST. The Holkar Stadium is one of the smallest grounds in India, which is not good news for a bowling attack that has just conceded 20 sixes.

India's selection questions have changed overnight. Before Ranchi, the debate was about Samson and Sooryavanshi at the top. Now it is about the bowling: whether Bishnoi comes in, whether Mayank gets his full four overs, and whether India can find a way to stop Hope and Rutherford before they decide another game.

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