Rohit Sharma whips West Indies

Lauderhill (USA): Rain halted play in the second T20 International of the three-match series between the West Indies and India on Sunday. West Indies were 98 for four off 15.3 overs in reply to India’s 167 for five at the stoppage.

If there is no more play India will be winners on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method as the West Indies needed to be at 120 when play was halted to be ahead of India.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma led from the front as India totalled 167 for five. Top-scorer in the four-wicket victory in the opening match of the series at the same venue a day earlier, Sharma blazed 67 off 51 balls with three sixes and six fours embellishing his entertaining innings after captain Virat Kohli chose to bat first on winning the toss.

He dominated an opening stand of 67 with Shikhar Dhawan and looked on course for a hundred when a miscued swing at Oshane Thomas resulted in a comfortable catch for Shimron Hetmyer at extra-cover.

Thomas also removed Rishabh Pant cheaply and the West Indies did a better containing job in the second half of the innings except for the final over when three sixes were hoisted off Keemo Paul.

Paul dismissed Dhawan for 23 and left-arm fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell claimed the prized wicket of Kohli (28) and doubled his wicket tally in removing Manish Pandey to a wicketkeeper's catch.

After going almost four overs without finding the boundary ropes, Krunal Pandya heaved two sixes and Ravindra Jadeja added another in Paul's expensive finale to the innings.

India retained an unchanged team from the opening match with Kohli opting to bat instead of bowl first as he did on Saturday on the belief that the surface will become increasingly difficult for batting as the day wears on.

West Indies, who need to win this match to keep the series alive ahead of the third match in Guyana on Tuesday, made one change with left-armer Khary Pierre offering the Caribbean side an additional spin option in place of opening batsman John Campbell.

Sunil Narine was promoted alongside Evin Lewis at the top of the batting order.

Rohit breaks record
Rohit became the most prolific six-hitter in T20 Internationals while his skipper Virat Kohli attained pole position among Indians in the shortest format across all competitions.

Rohit surpassed Chris Gayle’s record of 105 sixes by hitting three maximums on his way to a 51-ball 67.

The World Cup's highest scorer needed four sixes to go past Gayle's record at the start of the three-match series. During his knock of 24 in the opening game, Rohit had hit two sixes. On Sunday, he smashed another three to lead the tally with 107 sixes. New Zealand's Martin Guptill has 103. Rohit was one of India's biggest success stories in the 2019 World Cup, scoring a record five centuries to go past Kumar Sangakkara.