Kochi:
West Indies put behind an acrimonious pay dispute with their Board to
spank number one ranked India by a huge margin of 124 runs in the first
one-dayer to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series here today. The
Caribbeans, who were on the verge of boycotting the ODI, rode on Marlon
Samuels’ career-best equalling 126 not out to post 321 for six and then
shot out the Indians for 197 in 41 overs in a rather one-sided contest
at the Nehru Stadium. India paid the price for some mediocre
bowling and shoddy batting as they were outplayed by the crisis-hit
visiting team in all departments of the game to suffer a heavy defeat.Indian bowlers gave away too many runs at the second part of West Indies innings to allow the visitors pile up a big total after being put into bat and then the much-vaunted home batsmen, except for Shikhar Dhawan (68), failed to fire on a batting pitch. Most of Indian batsmen were out on poor shot selection and they could not stitch any substantial partnership in the face of some tight bowling by the visiting bowlers, the highest being the 49 in 8.4 overs for the opening wicket between Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane (24). Dhawan’s scratchy 68 came from 92 balls with the help of nine fours. Ravindra Jadeja (33 not out) was the other Indian batsman who scored more than 20 runs. West Indies, even without their mystery spinner Sunil Narine, could tie down the top Indian batsmen who failed to get the runs when required. Chasing a huge target of 322 for a win, India could not get to a good start as Rahane was run out in a bizarre mixed-up in the ninth over with just 49 on board. Rahane tapped the length ball off Ravi Rampaul on the pads between short fine leg and square leg and after taking the first run quickly, he wanted a second and continued to run hard. But, Dhawan went back after taking a step and both found themselves at the keeper’s end and Rahane had to depart for the dressing room.