NEW DELHI: On the back of captain Shikhar Dhawan’s sparkling 97, India edged West Indies by three runs in the first ODI at Port-of-Spain to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Chasing 309, the hosts lost the opener Shai Hope early but Kyle Mayers and Shamarah Brooks joined forces and put together a 117-run stand for the second wicket. Mayers, in particular, looked in excellent touch and reeled off a clutch of free-flowing shots.
However, Shardul Thakur – who has a knack of breaking partnerships – dismissed Mayers and Brooks in quick succession to peg the hosts back. After their departure, Brandon King played some fine shots and kept West Indies in the hunt before he was prised out by the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the 45th over.
Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd unfurled brisk cameos in the end but they didn’t prove adequate. In the last over, West Indies needed 15 runs to win but they could manage only 11.
Earlier, the hosts won the toss and opted to field.
Dhawan cracked a turbocharged 97 to drive his team to 308-7 in the 50 overs. The left-hander, who stepped up to lead the side in the absence of Rohit Sharma, cobbled up a 119-run stand for the first wicket with Shubman Gill.
Gill’s breezy 53-ball 64 included six boundaries and 2 sixes. After he perished, Shreyas Iyer, batting at number 3, once again came good and made a case for permanently cementing his place in the ODI team by scoring 54 runs.
After Gudakesh Motie, the left-arm spinner, dismissed Iyer and Dhawan for 54 and 97 respectively, Indian innings went off the rails. The visitors were 230-3 in 36 overs when Iyer fell, and in the last 14 overs India could clock up only 78 runs despite having many wickets in hand.
Apart from Motie, another left-arm spinner – Hosein – also exhibited appreciable control and gave away only 51 runs in 10 overs.
The all-rounder Axar Patel tried to accelerate the run-rate in the death overs but the visitors were eventually restricted to 308.