Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – West Indies finished on the losing end on Monday as they fell to India by four wickets as the West Indies v India Series opened before a colourful crowd at Queen’s Park Oval. Batting first, the Windies reached 214-9 off their 50 overs and the visitors reached the target for six wickets to win with 31 balls to spare.
The surface at the historic venue offered no real demons and only Ramnaresh Sarwan (56) and Marlon Samuels (55) stood out with the bat for the home side. The experienced pair added 82 for the fourth wicket.
In the bowling, rookie leg-spinner Anthony Martin (2-39) and pacer Ravi Rampaul (2-58) – did well as they shared the new ball, while Devendra Bishoo again troubled the batsmen with his clever leg-spin.
For India, opener Shikhar Dhawan (51) made his maiden ODI half-century in just his second match, while Rohit Sharma, saw the side home with a well-compiled 68 not out off 75 balls.
After the match, Sarwan reflected in the day’s activities and said a bigger score could have posed more problems for the India batsmen. He said he "did not quite middle it" while he was batting, but promised to work hard and be more fluent for the second Digicel Pearls ODI on Wednesday at the same venue.
"It was pretty tough early up but once we got set it became a bit easy to bat. Marlon and myself, we got starts, but we did not quite carry on. I was looking to get a much bigger score for the team and set a bigger target. I’m still not my fluent self, but I will go back to the nets tomorrow. I have a few things I have to work on and be ready for the match on Wednesday. From here on I will be looking to improve even more and do better for the team," said Sarwan, who recorded his 36th half-century in his 169th match.
The Windies Number 53 added: "As players we have been trying to help each other and look to improve and win more matches. The spirit in the team is still high. We played some good cricket against Pakistan and won a few matches against them, and even though we have not started the way we would have liked against India, we still have four more One-Day matches to go, so we will be looking to get some wins here as well.
Sarwan added: "It was really good to see Marlon get a good score under his belt. Young Bishoo has continued to bowl really well and Martin did well for us with the new ball and returned to get some wicket close to the end of the innings and build some pressure. Martin has done well in the team. He plays with a lot of passion and it is great to have a player like him in the team. Today, the bowlers kept us in the game and out there we felt we were always in with a chance."
The West Indies will have a full training session on Tuesday morning at the Queen’s Park Oval.