Rohit Sharma leads India to comfortable victory over West Indies

Indian players celebrate the dismissal of Dwayne Bravo

Suresh Raina displayed both maturity and experience, when he marshalled his resources to win the first ODI in the five match ODI series by four wickets. The youngster led his side to a comfortable victory against the West Indies after India lost the toss and were made to bowl first.

Earlier, West Indies made life harder for themselves by playing too many dot balls as they struggled to come to terms with the paceof the pitch. Both the openers were guilty of absorbing balls and not making a big contribution. Lendl Simmons in particular, looked out of sorts as the opener found it hard to find boundaries and the batsmen found the ropes only as many as four times in the mandatory ten over powerplay.

Lendl Simmons was put out of his misery when he went for a big hookk and was caught by Harbhajan Singh at mid-off, giving Praveen Kumar his first wicket of the day. Kirk Edwards made use of some poor catching by the Indians to reach his 45 ball 21 before he fell to a catch by Virat Kohli at first slip, of Harbhajan Singh’s bowling.

Ramnaresh Sarwan survived a stumping chance and an lbw shout early in his innings to reach his 94 ball 56 before he edged one to Parthiv Patel of Munaf Patel. It was only after the arrival of Dwayne Bravo and in the second batting powerplay thatthe West Indies team showed intent in their batting. Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo slammed Amit Mishra for two sixes in the same over in the batting powerplay.

West Indies scored 43 runs in the batting powerplay thanks to some power hitting by the two batsmen. The 75 ball 55 by Marlon Samuels gave the West Indies score some respectability. The Indian bowlers did well to pick up the wickets of Dwayne Bravo and the wicket keeper batsman Carlton Baugh who played a useful 17 ball 16 before he was trapped leg before by Harbhajan Singh.

It was left to the West Indies skipper Darren Sammy and the tail-enders to take the team over the psychological 200 run mark togive their bowlers something to bowl at. The Windies finally reached a score of 214 on account of a last ball four by Ravi Rampaul.

Requiring only 215 to win, the Indians were under no pressure at any point of the game. Though, Parthiv Patel returned to the pavilion after being run out, Shikar Dhawan hung in there and scored his first ODI fifty on debut which included three fours and one six. He soon perished trying to clear the man at midwicket for six after a well made 51.

Virat Kohli disappointed after he failed to make a contribution as he nicked one to Carlton Baugh of Ravi Rampaul’s ball. Subramaniam Badrinath and Yusuf Pathan chipped in with a 17 and a 10 while giving support to Rohith Sharma.

Suresh Raina played sensibly for his 50 ball 43 after he chose to send Badrinath and Rohit Sharma ahead of him. The 80 run partnership between Suresh Raina and Sharma took the Indian team to winning distance. It took a six from the bat of Harbhajan Singh to win the match as India won the first ODI by 4 wickets. Rohit Sharma played the finisher’s role to perfection as he hit three fours and one six in his 68 from 75 balls and was adjudged the man of the match for his match winning innings.