Providence: Nicholas Pooran smashed his way to a scintillating half-century before West Indies overcame some anxious moments to hand India a two-wicket defeat in the second T20I here on Sunday.
Opting to bat, the fearless Tilak Varma continued his good run in the shortest format and produced a well-calculated fifty to take India to 152 for seven.
Pooran then blazed away to 67 from 40 balls to put his side on course for what seemed like a comfortable win.
But Yuzvendra Chahal (2/19) bowled a sensational 16th over and brought India back in the game and the hosts suddenly looked under tremendous pressure.
However, Akeal Hosein and Alzarri Joseph shared an unbeaten 26-run partnership to help the West Indies complete the task with seven balls to spare and give them a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Indian captain Hardik Pandya may have missed a trick by not bowling Chahal in the crucial 19th over, with the West Indies needing 12 runs off as many balls.
Hosein (2/29) and Joseph (2/28) also starred with the ball along with Romario Shepherd (2/28), sharing six wickets amongst themselves.
For the visitors, the 20-year-old Varma scooped, swept and heaved the ball all around the ground to score 51 off 41 balls, becoming the youngest Indian to score a fifty in T20 Internationals.
Deciding to take the new ball, Pandya bowled a fiery first over that yielded India the wickets of opener Brandon King (0) and Johnson Charles (2).
Hardik swung the ball outside off for King to hit a cover drive only for Suryakumar Yadav to complete a spectacular catch off the very first ball of the innings.
Charles then fell victim to another swinging delivery by Hardik as the hosts were dealt a double blow at the start of their innings.
But star batter Pooran was unperturbed as he tonked Hardik for a six before slashing one for a boundary.
The big-hitting Kyle Mayers (15) joined his partner as he hit a couple of boundaries and a six before Arshdeep Singh trapped him leg before.
Pooran continued with his counter-attacking ways as he collected 18 runs in the next over. The flamboyant wicketkeeper-batter got those runs off leggie Ravi Bishnoi, that included a massive six over long-on. Earlier, coming out to bat with India in a spot of bother at 18/2, Varma put up a crucial 42-run partnership with Ishan Kishan (27) before joining forces with skipper Hardik Pandya to stitch a 38-run stand.
Hardik (24) tried to inflate India’s total by hitting two sixes but Alzarri Joseph (2/28) produced a cracking yorker to get rid of the
Indian skipper.