Navdeep Saini stars on debut as India restrict Windies to paltry 95/9

Lauderhill (Florida) (2 MIN READ): Seamer Navdeep Saini made a memorable international debut by grabbing two important wickets off consecutive deliveries to help India restrict the West Indies to 95/9 in 20 overs in the first T20 international here on Saturday.

Coming to bowl in the fifth over after Washington Sundar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had removed openers John Campbell and Evin Lewis for a pair of ducks, Saini (3/17) snared the wickets of Nicholas Pooran (20) and Shimron Hetmyer (0) off back-to-back deliveries to reduce the hosts to 28/4 after five overs.

West Indies could never recover from there even with comeback man Kieron Pollard top-scoring with a run-a-ball 49 (4×2, 6×4) before Saini got his back in the final over which he finished with a wicket maiden to cap off a dream debut.

Besides Saini, pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar returned figures of 2/19 while Sundar (1/18), Khaleel Ahmed (1/8), Krunal Pandya (1/20) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/13) picked up one wicket each.

It all started for 26-year old Saini, blessed with raw pace, when he found Pooran’s top edge with a short of length delivery, which flew to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

In the very next ball of the fifth over, Saini was on a hat-trick on debut after castling Shimron Hetmyer. Returning in the final over, Saini trapped the big-hitting Pollard in front, with reviews confirming the dismissal.

The Windies’ batters were all over the place as apart from Pollard and Pooran, none scored in double digits.

Brief scores: West Indies: 95/9 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 49, Navdeep Saini 3/17) vs India

 Published on: Aug 3, 2019 at 21:57 IST

IANS