India vs West Indies 1st T20I: Man of the Match, Post-Match Presentation From August 3 Game

Tarouba, Aug 3 (PTI) Tilak Varma looked very much at home on his international debut before India made a mess of a modest run-chase to lose the opening T20 International against the West Indies by four runs here on Thursday.

Rovman Powell (48 off 32) played a captain's knock to take West Indies to 149 for six after the hosts opted to bat at the Brian Lara Stadium. Later, former skipper Jason Holder starred with the ball to stun Indian batters in the death overs and hand his team a confident-boosting win.

Holder brought the West Indies back into the game by producing a maiden in the 16th over when he found the stumps of India skipper Hardik Pandya (19) before Sanju Samson (12) got run out. The hosts pulled things back from then on and eke out a famous win against a strong rival.

IND vs WI 1st T20I Full List of Award Winners

Jason Holder, Player of the Match: The amount of cricket I've been playing for the last three years, it's a lot. I try to find some passages of break, get some time off, refresh and come back again. I think it (a break from the ODIs) was needed. I was happy that I stuck with my plans.

I wanted to make them work hard for their runs, didn't want to give any free runs. It (16th over) was the turning point based on the fact that the game was coming down very close. India vs West Indies 1st T20I: Jason Holder, Rovman Powell spoil Team India's party with 4-run win in Trinidad

They had set batters and we had to stay in the game. The guys really stuck together, it was a total team effort. The conditions played in the favour of the bowlers. We got early wickets, which is really important.

IND vs WI 1st T20I Captains' Comments

Rovman Powell, West Indies captain: It's a very good feeling. We talked about starting this series on a positive note and the guys did that. It was our game to lose, they didn't have a set batter and I was confident going into the last over. After watching the Indians bowl, I thought we were a spinner short. We got to utilise what we have and back our skills. It was difficult (to bat). We always knew that the new ball was going to give us runs.

This series will be decided on how West Indies batters bat against spin in the middle overs. We have the power to load in the backend. The left-handers like Pooran, Hetmyer and Mayers will be key in that aspect. I knew it was going to be difficult to start in the Caribbean. But once you get a start, runs are there. Jason (Holder) was fantastic today. He summed up the conditions very well.

Hardik Pandya, India captain: 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. 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. It (playing three spinners) was more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together.

Axar adds a very good component in his batting as well. We felt that was the right combination. Mukesh (Kumar) - to have these two weeks which he has had in West Indies - where he made debuts in all three formats is really good.

Genuinely, he's a nice guy. He has a very good heart and wants to contribute to the team. He bowled a couple of overs back to back and that was fantastic. Tilak - very pleasing to see the way he started his innings. Not a bad way to start your international cricket with a couple of sixes. There's confidence and the fearlessness they have. They are going to do wonders for India.