West Indies vs India 2022: 1st ODI – Who Said What

It was a game worth watching for all the cricket fans. Both India and West Indies gave their best in the opening ODI and put out a terrific performance on display, but in the end, the Men in Blue emerged victorious and clinched the game by the barest of margins. India started off really well with the bat after West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran opted to field first.

Indian skipper Shikhar Dhawan and his opening partner Shubman Gill started off on a high note and shared a 119-run partnership before Gill walked off, scoring a half-century. Dhawan was well assisted by Shreyas Iyer and the two took India from 119/1 to 213/2. Dhawan missed his century by just three runs but walked off after a terrific performance.

Iyer’s dismissal, after his half-century, brought misery to India’s innings as the middle order failed to fire and collapsed quickly, thanks to a comeback by the hosts. A cameo by Axar Patel towards the end helped India cross the 300-run mark and put up a target of 308 runs. India started well in the second innings by dismissing Shai Hope early.

India sails past a terrific Windies lineup

West Indies’ top-order covered up for the early wicket and played the Indian attack really well. Shamarh Brooks and Kyle Mayers shared a 117-run stand for the second wicket and had their side in a commanding position. It was Shardul Thakur who struck twice in two overs and scalped the prized wickets of the top-order duo.

The game came down till the final over of the chase, with West Indies needing 15 to win and Mohammed Siraj on duty. The pacer held his nerves and bowled brilliantly, even after giving away a boundary. Credit should also be given to Sanju Samson for a brilliant save behind the stumps, as India won the series opener by just three runs.

Losing skipper, Nicholas Pooran said:

Feels like a win for us. Bittersweet, but yeah we keep talking about batting 50 overs and everyone saw what we are capable of and hopefully we can go strength to strength from here. Looking forward to the rest of the series. It was a good batting track and our bowlers did a commendable job to restrict them. It’s difficult to lose but we will take this one. We need to believe in each other and I keep telling everyone that we will have our challenges, but important to focus on the positives.

Winning skipper & Player of the match, Shikhar Dhawan said: 

Disappointed not to get the 100, but it was a good effort by the team. We good a good score in the end. There were nerves in the end and didn’t expect it to turn that way. We kept our cool and one small change in the end where we pushed the fine leg back and that really helped us. The discussion was to use the bigger side as much as we can and we want to keep on learning and make ourselves better for the rest of the competition.