West Indies beat India by 7 wickets to enter final of ICC World T20

West Indies skipper Darren Sammy had often spoken about 15 match winners in their squad but on Thursday, it was the turn of 16th man Lendl Simmons who saw them through to the final of the ICC World Twenty20.

The Mumbai Indians player, Simmons who arrived late as Andre Fletcher’s replacement, made most of his three lives to make an immediate impact with an unbeaten 82 in 51 balls. He was lucky to get three lifelines and hit seven boundaries and five sixes as the Windies won by seven wickets while chasing India’s 192/2 in the second semi-final here at Wankhede.

He kept the hopes alive with a 97-run partnership for the third wicket along with Johnson Charles (52, 36b, 7x4, 2x6) after Chris Gayle (5) was bowled by a Jasprit Bumrah (1/42) beauty and Marlon Samuels (8) got a leading edge off Ashish Nehra (1/25). Simmons stayed till the end with Andre Russell 43 (20, 3x4, 4x6) to see off the chase with two balls to spare. Simmons and Russell put together an undefeated 80 runs in 40 balls.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya thought they had Simmons on separate occasions but they were no balls. The batsman had the last laugh when he hit Bumrah over mid-wicket and Ravindra Jadeja held it outside to lob it back to Virat Kohli who caught it but Jadeja had touched the boundary line and Simmons was called back for the third time.

Earlier, Kohli rode on his luck to unleash his destructive side once again with a 47-ball 89. The Delhi dasher struck 11 fours and a lone six to give India their best score of the tournament.

He was involved in 66-run second wicket partnership with Ajinkya Rahane 40 (35b, 2x4) before finishing it in style with a 64-run undefeated partnership with skipper M.S. Dhoni in 27 balls. He was as usual masterly in piercing the gaps, running the twos hard and finding the boundaries at will towards the end of innings. The last four overs produced 59 runs as Kohli dispatched the bowlers to all parts of the park.

India dropped Shikhar Dhawan to give Rahane a go and he didn’t disappoint. Manish Pandey also made his way in place of the injured Yuvraj Singh.

Scoreboard India: Rohit Sharma lbw b Badree 43, A. Rahane c Bravo b Russell 40, V. Kohli (not out) 89, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 15. Extras (lb1, w2, nb2) 5. Total (for 2 wkts, in 20 overs) 192. FoW: 1-62, 2-128. Bowling: Russell 4-0-47-1 (1nb, 1w), Badree 4-0-26-1 (1w), Brathwaite 4-0-38-0, Benn 4-0-36-0, Bravo 4-0-44-0 (1nb)

West Indies: J. Charles c Sharma b Kohli 52, C. Gayle b Bumrah 5, M. Samuels c Rahane b Nehra 8, L. Simmons (not out) 82, A. Russell (not out) 43. Extras: (lb 4, nb 2) 6. Total: (for 3 wkts; in 19.4 overs) 196 FoW: 1-6, 2-19, 3-116 Bowling: Nehra 4-0-24-1, Bumrah 4-0-42-1, Jadeja 4-0-48-0, Ashwin 2-0-20-0 (1nb), Pandya 4-0-43-0 (1nb), Kohli 1.4-0-15-1