West Indies lost to India in the one-sided opening ODI of the three-game series on February 6 by six wickets following an insipid batting performance in the first half. The Calypso Kings managed a score of only 176 on the board, which India overhauled with more than 20 overs to go.
It was the trial by spin that West Indies just couldn’t be able to withstand. If it was Andrew McBrine in their 2-1 series loss to Ireland, the chief architects of the collapse here were Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal. One a tall, skiddy off-spinner and the other a willy wristspinner, the duo shared seven wickets between less than 80 runs together.
The surface in Ahmedabad wasn’t exactly a turner but had some dry patches in the middle, which meant that whenever bowlers hit those spots they found some turn and uneven bounce. Sundar, being the ideal bowler to exploit such patches, instantly got into his work and troubled the West Indies middle-order.
Introduced in the latter half of the first powerplay with the new ball after the early departure of opener Shai Hope (8) to pacer Mohammad Siraj, Sundar got the ball to turn sharply past left-hander Darren Bravo’s outside edge and got him unsettled. He soon got the left-hander pinned in front of the stumps with the one coming in.
This, after having already induced a false stroke from right-hander Brandon King, who top-edged the sharp off-spinner from Sundar to the short mid-wicket fielder. Those two wickets further drowned the West Indies in troubled waters and that made it an ideal scenario for Chahal to enter the contest.
Chahal, introduced into the attack with the 20th over with West Indies 70/3, reduced them to 78 for six in the next space of a couple of overs where he dismissed the dangerous Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard the in-form Shamarh Brooks. At the other end, the visitors also lost tailender Akeal Hosein to be 79 for seven.
An early finish looked on the cards at this point. But, as has been the case for a while, West Indies allrounder Jason Holder played his team’s lone warrior with the bat.
He batted with great control against India’s spinners and pacers to produce a fighting half-century (57) when the chips were down. He and Fabian Allen (29) added 78 runs for the eighth wicket and brought a greater sense of respectability to the total.
It was still never going to be enough for the lengthy Indian batting and for a while, they looked like securing victory by 10 wickets. Captain Rohit Sharma, making a comeback after a hamstring injury, dominated his way at the top for a classy knock of 60 off 51 balls, including 10 fours and one six.
Rohit and stand-in opener Ishan Kishan (28) added 84 runs for the first wicket, before Rohit was done in LBW by a sharp incomer from Alzarri Joseph. Soon, Joseph also got Virat Kohli out caught for eight, skying an attempted hook shot towards the long-leg region.
This kicked off a mini-collapse as India then also lost Kishan and the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant (11) to an unlucky run-out at the other end.
But with no pressure of the asking rate, India’s middle-order batters Suryakumar Yadav (34*) and debutant Deepak Hooda (26*) managed to make a swift recovery and steered the team home.
💯-plus ODI wickets 👏
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 7, 2022
Working on his bowling 👌
Tips for the road ahead ☺️
Captain @ImRo45 turns anchor & interviews @yuzi_chahal after #TeamIndia win the first @Paytm #INDvWI ODI in Ahmedabad. 😎 😎 – By @Moulinparikh
Watch the full interview 🎥https://t.co/tWZL5GFalz pic.twitter.com/Oz22p7hvOz
Brief scores
West Indies 176/10 in 43.5 overs (Holder 57; Chahal 4/49, Sundar 3/30) lost to India 178/4 in 28 overs (Sharma 60, Yadav 34; Joseph 2/45) by 6 wickets
