Shreyas Iyer's 42-ball hundred finishes a 172 chase in 14.4 overs at Lucknow

India chased 172 in 14.4 overs at Lucknow on Tuesday night and beat West Indies by eight wickets in the first T20I of the tour. Shreyas Iyer finished unbeaten on 102 from 43 balls, his first hundred in the format for India, and was named player of the match. The win takes India's T20I streak to 10.

India won the toss and bowled. West Indies were held to 171. Sherfane Rutherford made 56. The rest of the damage came from spin and from a debutant. Axar Patel opened the squeeze with a double-wicket maiden that closed the powerplay and finished with 2 for 26. Kuldeep Yadav came back from an expensive over to take two wickets. Naman Dhir, on T20I debut, returned 4-0-31-3. Three times in his spell he was hit for a six and took a wicket with the next ball.

Those eight wickets from the three spinners set the chase. India needed 172. Sanju Samson was caught for 11 off 9. Abhishek Sharma was caught for 21 off 10. Ishan Kishan stayed to the end on 37 from 27. Iyer did the rest. His hundred came off 42 balls. India closed on 172 for 2, with one no-ball in the extras, and 32 balls unused.

What the scoreboard actually says

The India card is short enough to read in one pass. Two wickets fell inside the first four overs of the reply. After that the asking rate never became the story. Iyer's 102 not out from 43 is a strike rate of about 237. Kishan's 37 from 27 is a strike rate of about 137. Together they took the target with more than five overs left, which is a different problem for a bowling side than a last-over chase.

On the West Indies side, Rutherford's 56 was the only innings the public card has marked as a half-century. Dhir's debut figures, 3 for 31 from four overs, are the sharpest bowling return of the night. Axar's double-wicket maiden at the end of the powerplay is the passage that stopped an early surge. Kuldeep's two wickets, taken after a loose over, are the reminder that the middle overs were not a procession.

India have now won ten T20Is in a row. That streak is the frame around a single night in Lucknow, not a substitute for it. The match itself turned on a bowling choice at the toss, a debut spell, and a 43-ball hundred.

Why the debut spell matters

Dhir's four overs are the piece of the night that will travel into selection talk. He was hit for a six and answered with a wicket, and he did it three times. That is a small sample. It is also a specific one. A debutant who leaks a boundary and still finishes 3 for 31 from a full allotment has given the captain a repeatable option, not a one-off over.

Axar's 2 for 26, built around that powerplay maiden, did a different job. It took wickets at the moment when a batting side is still trying to use the fielding restrictions. A maiden at the end of the powerplay is six legal balls without a run, and in this case two wickets as well. West Indies went to the middle overs already short of a platform.

Kuldeep's return is the third part of the same plan. An expensive over followed by two wickets is the ordinary risk of wrist-spin in this format. The return was enough, with Dhir and Axar, for the three of them to take eight of the ten wickets. India did not need a seamer to finish the innings.

The chase, ball by ball in outline

Samson and Abhishek Sharma both went early, caught, for 11 and 21. That is 32 runs and two wickets before the innings had a settled pair. From there Kishan and Iyer did not lose another wicket. Kishan faced 27 balls for 37. Iyer faced 43 for 102. The arithmetic of the chase is simple. India scored 172 for the loss of two wickets, with a no-ball among the extras, in 14.4 overs. The target was 172. The margin is eight wickets and 32 balls.

Iyer's hundred is his first in T20Is. The 42-ball timing of it is the figure that will sit next to his name in the short records of this series. He was still there at the end, which means the hundred was not a cameo cut off by a declaration or a retirement. He batted through the close.

What the rest of the series has to answer

This was the first T20I of the West Indies tour. India have the streak and the points on the board. West Indies have a 171 that did not hold, and a top-order score of 56 from Rutherford that did not have a second innings of the same size beside it in the published card. The next match will show whether Dhir keeps the ball, whether Axar is asked to open the squeeze again, and whether a side that has just been chased down in 14.4 overs changes its plan after being put in.

For India the selection question is narrower. Iyer has a T20I hundred. Kishan has an unbeaten 37 in a chase that never tightened. Samson and Abhishek Sharma have short, caught innings. None of that settles a batting order. It does settle the result of 6 October at Lucknow: 171 all out, 172 for 2, eight wickets, 32 balls left.