Kingston: Yuvraj Singh hit a sublime 131 as India pipped West Indies by 20 runs in a thrilling first one-day international to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series at Sabina Park on Friday.
Leaving behind their pathetic show in the Twenty20 World Cup, the Indian batsmen came out firing on all cylinders as they trampled the West Indies attack to reach an intimidating 339 for six after opting to bat.
However, defending even such a massive total proved quite a task for the Indians as they just about managed to bowl the hosts out for 319 in 48.1 overs.
It was a spirited chase by the hosts, for whom Shivnarain Chanderpaul top-scored with 63 and Denesh Ramdin played a sparkling 29-run knock down the order.
Earlier, Yuvraj treated the host bowlers with utter disdain and clobbered them for seven huge sixes and 10 boundaries apart from sharing a crucial 135-run stand with Dinesh Karthik (67) to shape the Indian innings.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41), Yusuf Pathan (40 not out) and Harbhajan Singh (21 not out) also chipped in with useful contributions.
With the wicket of Chanderpaul in the 36th over it looked all over for the hosts but their lower order batted with steely resolve and made it an edge-of-the-seat contest.
West Indies required 21 off the last two overs with one wicket in hand but Ashish Nehra removed Ramdin with the first ball of the 49th over to bring a huge relief for his side.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (45) and Runako Morton (42) did well and got the starts for the West Indies but could not convert those into big knocks.
Jerome Taylor (21) and David Bernard (19), batting at number seven and nine respectively did their best but their effort went in vain in the end.
For India, Nehra (3-49) and Yusuf Pathan (3-56) were the leading wicket-takers.
It was raining sixes as 23 of them were hit in the match. Only thrice a one-dayer has witnessed more sixes.
The West Indies run chase began in the right earnest with Chris Gayle (37) and Morton quickly putting up 65 for the first wicket before comeback man Ashish Nehra got rid of the skipper.
Gayle miscued a pull off the left-armer and Harbhajan took a smart running catch at mid-on. Morton’s entertaining knock in which he hit for fours and a six ended when Yusuf had him caught behind.
The hosts maintained a good run-rate to keep their hopes alive but continued losing their settled batsmen.
The big-hitting Dwayne Bravo (8) though was extremely unlucky as he got out on a high full toss off Ishant Sharma which the umpires ruled was below waist-height.
