India wins the first ODI

India defeated West Indies to take 1-0 lead in a five match series on Monday. The newly crowned world champions continued their dominance in the 50 over format of the game by a four wicket win at Queen's Park Oval.

West Indies won the toss and chose to bat. But the decision didn't seem appropriate as the West Indies batsman were struggling to cope up with the Indian bowling attack. With 19 over gone, the team was struggling with a score of 59 with 3 wickets down.

It was only because of a 82 runs fourth wicket partnership between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels that West Indies put on a somewhat fighting total of 214.

West Indies were without their in form batsman Chris Gayle who is out because of a row with board, and his absence was really hurting the host.
It appeared that the lady luck was though favoring the host when the opener Kirk Edwards was dropped on the slip by Sharma, but the visitors hit back by clinching the first wicket and victim was Lendl Simmons. Darren Bravo followed in the next over. However, India's fielding woes continued as Edwards was again dropped. But the West Indian opener couldn't maintain pace with with the Indian spin bowling and finally fell victim to Harbhajan.

While Indian were building on enormous pressure, Sarwan and Samuels decided to take control of the situation. With some careful batting and surviving a numerous appeals, the two took the total over hundred.

Sarwan went past 50 with two back to back boundaries and pressure was back on the visitors. But when it seemed that he and Samuel might take the game away from India, the visitors got the breakthrough when Sarwan, who scored 56 of 94 balls, was caught behind the wickets on Munaf Patel's full length inswinger in the 38th over.

Dwayne Bravo and Samuels continued from where Sarwan left, both hit a six apiece in one over of Mishra. But like always the world champions bounced back as Suresh Raina picked up Samuel in the very next over. It was followed by Bravo's wicket who was stumped on a Bhajji's delivery and the spinner got his second wicket.

It was then just a matter of time as the West Indies innings came to an end as the tail enders offered just a little. Indian innings started on high note as Shikhar Dhawan hit back to back boundaries on Ravi Rampaul.

Parthiv Patel looked in good form and was hitting well but was caught on wrong side of the crease and got run out. Soon Virat Kohli was also back in the pavilion as he was caught behind off Rampaul. Indian victory seemed unlikely when Subramaniam Badrinath under-edged Devendra Bishoo through to Baugh, and visitors were struggling at 61 for 3.

But Rohit Sharma had other ideas. His intelligent batting and fine patnership with Dhawan and then with Raina pushed India nearer to victory. Dhawan who scored a brilliant 51 was in no mode to spare the bowlers. He reached his half century in style by hitting a boundary off Bravo but soon fell to Anthony Martin when he picked out Simmons at deep midwicket.

Raina and Sharma were in no hurry as they kept on rotating the strike by taking one and twos. Raina dispatched Darren Sammy for a six to take his side past 150.

The West Indies bowlers were finally able to get rid of Raina who fell in the similar way as Dhawan. But after a 80 run partnership and a mere 21 runs required to win, it seemed that the damage had been done.

Harbhajan Singh who took three wickets while bowling, finished the game in style by hitting the ball over the boundary line for six and winning the game in style.

During the post match interviews Raina said, “The bowlers did a great job, followed by Rohit (Sharma) and Shikhar (Dhawan). The track wasn't good for batting, but we rotated the strike well. We can do better in the field, need to show more intensity. It's looking good at the moment, I hope we do well in the next game as well."

Man-of-the-match Rohit Sharma also spoke about the pitch. "It was quite difficult initially because the track was turning. It was important to spend some time in the middle to play our shots," he said.

On the other hand Ramnaresh Sarwan didn't appear pleased over the batting performance of his team and said that Gayle's absence affected the team. "Frankly, you miss his presence. But selectors have given us a team and we have to try to do our best. But the spirit of the team is high and we are only going to get better," he said.

The West Indian batsman however couldn't hide the fact that he was impressed by the visitors. "I was impressed by the way they played spin and kept rotating the strike. I also liked how they went after the new ball," he added.

The second match of the five match series will be played on June 8th.