In what turned out to be a one-sided affair at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, India posted a comfortable five-wicket win against the West Indies to take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series. India chased down the paltry target of 115 with 27 overs to spare. The spin twins – Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja – starred for India by sharing seven wickets between them.
On a track that offered some tennis-ball bounce and movement, the Indian pace bowlers struck early, with Hardik Pandya removing Kyle Mayers. For a brief period of time, Alick Athanaze and Brandon King played horizontal-bat shots to put some pressure back on the Indian pacers. However, it didn’t last long as Athanaze smashed one to Jadeja, who pouched a sharp catch. That wicket also turned out to be Mukesh Kumar’s maiden ODI scalp. Shardul Thakur followed it up by castling King with a nip-backer.
Shai Hope,. the West Indies skipper, put up some resistance with a free-flowing unbeaten 43. Unfortunately, he didn’t get much support from the other end. The only stand of substance was between Hope and Shimron Hetmyer (43 runs), but once Hetmyer was cleaned up by Jadeja, it turned out to be a procession of wickets. Jadeja also dismissed Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd, while Kuldeep ran through the lower order, while imparting plenty of revs on the ball.
With a modest target to chase, India decided to rejig the batting order. Ishan Kishan opened the innings, alongside Shubman Gill. Suryakumar Yadav, Pandya, Jadeja and Thakur batted in the middle order. Rohit Sharma came out to bat as low as No. 7 while Virat Kohli never left the dressing room. Kishan made good use of his promotion by cracking a 46-ball 52. The highlight of his innings was the way he took on Yannic Cariah with cuts and lofts. The rest of the batters, however, couldn’t make use of the opportunities.
Eventually, Rohit completed the formalities with a four off Gudakesh Motie. Incidentally, Motie, the left-arm spinner, was by far the best bowler on show for the West Indies, extracting some turn and bounce. He also reaped the rewards and finished with a couple of scalps. The West Indies clearly missed the services of Motie in the Test series, as he was laid low by a back issue.
The second ODI of the three-match series will be played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad. West Indies will need to put up a much better show to put a formidable Indian side under some pressure.