Playing at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday, West Indies posted 171 after being put in to bat. In reply, the hosts chased down the target in just 14.4 overs with eight wickets to spare. Captain Iyer was the chief architect of India’s innings, smashing his maiden T20I century in just 42 balls and guiding his side home in style.
Shreyas Iyer led from the front as India registered a memorable eight-wicket victory over West Indies in the first T20I of the five-match series.
Before Iyer’s heroics, Kohli held the record for the highest score by an Indian captain in a successful T20I run chase, having scored an unbeaten 94 against West Indies in December 2019. On Tuesday, Iyer surpassed that mark with an unbeaten 102 to claim the top spot. Former India captain Rohit Sharma occupies third place on the list with an unbeaten 85 against Bangladesh in November 2019. Kohli is joint-third alongside Rohit, courtesy of his unbeaten 85 against Australia in December 2020. T20I hundreds as India captain 121* – Rohit Sharma vs AFG, Bengaluru, 2024 118 – Rohit Sharma vs SL, Indore, 2017 111* – Rohit Sharma vs WI, Lucknow, 2018 102* – Shreyas Iyer vs WI, Lucknow, 2026 100 – Suryakumar Yadav vs SA, Johannesburg, 2023 After bringing up his first T20I century for India, Iyer was competely overjoyed and revealed that he actually manifested reaching the triple figures before coming for the match.
So, you know, I definitely want to say that dreams do come true,” said Iyer during the post-match presentation. “Well, definitely exultant. And yeah, obviously speaking, I was actually thinking about getting my first century, and it came through. “Winning definitely tastes different, and that’s what we keep talking about in the dressing room. If it’s your day, make sure that you win the match for the team. Previous couple of games, it was the batsmen who finished off the game. So yeah, overall I feel it was a comprehensive performance, and I think if we continue with the same mindset, we will be one of the destructive teams in T20s,” he added.
That’s the word I would use today, (for the) the performance. And today it was me.
