India and West Indies fined for slow over-rate during 1st T20I

India and the West Indies have been fined for slow over-rate during their respective bowling innings in the first T20I at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Thursday, August 3.

While the Men in Blue fell an over short during their bowling stint, the hosts were two overs short of the allotted time for the innings. This resulted in India being fined five percent and the West Indies 10 percent of the match fees for the players.

The fines comply with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel. It states that the players are fined five percent of their match fees for every over exceeding the allotted time.

Meanwhile, the skippers of both sides, Hardik Pandya and Rovman Powell, accepted the charges levied by on-field umpires Gregory Brathwaite and Patrick Gustard, along with third umpire Nigel Duguid and fourth umpire Leslie Reifer.

It comes off as a double whammy for India as they also suffered a last-ball defeat in the opening T20I by four runs. Despite restricting the hosts to a below-par 149/6 in their 20 overs, the Asian giants endured a scratchy batting performance to finish on 145/9.

---

"A young team will make mistakes" - Indian skipper Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya was dismissed at a critical juncture during India's run chase.

Indian skipper Hardik Pandya remained upbeat despite the team suffering a shocking five-run defeat in the opening T20I of the five-match series. It was India's second defeat in the last three games of the white-ball leg of the West Indian tour.

The Men in Blue also lost the second ODI before bouncing back to trounce the hosts in the following ODI to win the series 2-1. It was only India's third loss in the last 18 T20 matches against the men from the Caribbean since 2018-19.

At the post-match presentation, Pandya spoke about the crucial mistakes in their run-chase but maintained the belief that the youngsters will learn and grow in the upcoming games.

"We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which costed us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead," Pandya said.

"In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that's exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase," he added.

India won the Test and the ODI series preceding the T20s and will look to bounce back in the second game, having won the last five five T20I series against the West Indies.

The action now shifts to Guyana for the second T20I on Sunday, August 6.