The pitch at the Providence in Guyana was by no means as slow as that of Tarouba. Yet, India’s batsmen struggled and in spite of a late comeback with the ball led by Yuzvendra Chahal (2/19), West Indies scrambled to a two-wicket win in the second T20I on Sunday to double their lead in the series.

Batting first after winning the toss, India laboured to 152/7, which too would not have been possible if not for young Tilak Varma (51 off 41 balls), who registered his maiden international half-century to shine again after an impressive debut. Also, the last over of India's innings yielded 13 runs.

The Windies, thereafter, lost three quick wickets early in their reply, but Nicholas Pooran (67 off 40 balls) helped them coast to the target stitching partnerships with captain Rovman Powell (21) and Shimron Hetmyer (22) for the fourth and fifth wickets, respectively. When Pooran departed, the Windies needed only 27 more off six overs.

Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, coming in place of Kuldeep Yadav who was out with a sore left thumb, then gave away just a single in the 15th over. Then came the over from Chahal that put India right on top out of nowhere.

After Romario Shepherd was run out owing to a misunderstanding with Hetmyer, Chahal spun one past Jason Holder to have him stumped for the second wicket to fall in that over. And then in the last ball of that over, Chahal found the right length and some spin to trap Hetmyer lbw.

The Windies, from 126/4 in 13.5 overs, had slipped to 129/8 after over No.16.

However, Akeal Hosein (16 not out) and Alzarri Joseph (10 not out), who did a good job earlier with the ball, remained composed and steady, and more importantly, focused on finding the gaps. With 12 needed off as many balls, Joseph first slammed a short one from Mukesh Kumar for a six in the second ball of the penultimate over before Hosein hit the winning runs with seven balls to spare.

Joseph earlier picked up the crucial wickets of Gujarat Titans teammates Shubman Gill and skipper Hardik Pandya. Inducing Gill to play a false shot in the third over, he cleaned Pandya up after the India captain had warmed up with a couple of maximums.

Surprisingly, Pandya (3/35), striking twice in the first over of the Windies reply, didn’t use Axar Patel with the ball when there was some turn on offer towards the end. Besides, India also missed a review when Bishnoi had pinned Powell on the back leg. The appeal was turned down, but the replays showed that the ball was hitting the stumps.

Powell was on four then with the Windies total 69/3 in the eighth over.

With the quicks getting some movement off the pitch, pacer Shepherd (2/28) also struck twice for the Windies. So did left-arm spinner Hosein with one of his scalps being that of the set Varma.

What also made the going tougher for India was another superb direct hit from Kyle Mayers to send back Suryakumar Yadav in his 50th T20I. Kishan and Sanju Samson not lasting long didn’t make matters any easier.