The West Indies handed Men in Blue a humiliating defeat in the series decider on Sunday. Brandon King’s explosive knock of unbeaten 85 powered the hosts to thrash India by 8 wickets and clinch the T20I series 3-2. With a dominating win, the Windies registered a historic bilateral series win over India in 17 years. India, on the other hand, lost a series for the first time in 25 months.

Hardik Pandya’s decision to bat first backfired as the Windies’ orthodox bowler Akeal Hosein dismissed both openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (5) and Shubman Gill (9) in his successive overs. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma stitched a 49-run partnership to rebuild the Indian innings. But Roston Chase gave India another blow by removing Varma for 27.

Although Suryakumar played an anchoring inning, other batters failed to score big and lost their wickets cheaply. Sanju Samson and Pandya chipped in 13 and 14 respectively while Axar Patel departed for 13. Suryakumar’s fine knock of 61 helped India to reach a decent total of 165/9 in 20 overs. Romario Shepherd starred with a four-wicket haul for the Windies.

Chasing 166, the Windies were rocked early by Arshdeep Singh as the pacer dismissed (10) in the second over. But King and Nicholas Pooran stitched a brilliant 107-run partnership to take the game away from India. Both batters rained sixes to score runs quickly. Varma gave the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Pooran (47) but that was not enough for the visitors as the Windies were well ahead in the game. Shai Hope (22*) finished things off in style, hitting a huge six.