IND vs WI 1st ODI: “Feels like a win for us,” claims WI captain Nicholas Pooran

The first match for this wonderful ODI series led by two of the finest players of their respective nations started a friendly tackle yesterday on July 22.

Shikhar Dhawan played really fluently without taking too many risks as India got off to a great start. Shubman Gill scored more runs than Shikhar Dhawan while batting, helping India reach 73 in just 10 overs. After two more overs, Gill reached a 36-ball fifty and the century stand was established. The openers had laid a strong foundation, with Dhawan reaching his fifty off 53 balls. Even after Gill was out, Dhawan was joined by Shreyas Iyer, and their 90-plus run partnership came at almost a run per ball, giving the dying overs the perfect starting point.

Shikhar Dhawan scored a magnificent 97-runs mark and missed a terrific ton by just 3 runs but the ‘Gabbar’ as usual walked back with a smile. On the other hand Shubman Gill scored 64 runs before getting run out by Pooran.

Shreyas Iyer, who took the responsibility of the first dowm position, scored a well-desreved half century and had to walk back soon after his fifty. Two of the finest batsmen Surykumar Yadav and Sanju Samson could not stay for long and walked back with minimal scores. Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel closed in the innings to take on the lead of more than 300 runs.

West Indies, unlike their batting performance, failed to leave any positive remark on their bowling as India smashed more than 300 runs in a very easy way. Alzarri Joseph who has a good experience of the Indian Premier League managed to bowl with an economy of 6.1 by taking 2 wickets. Not-so-experienced Motie managed to bag in 2 critical wickets. Two of the finest bowlers Jayden Seales and Kyle Mayers went wicketless. Nicholas Pooran tried his hand but was smashed for 23 runs in just 2 overs.

West Indies managed to restrict India at 308 runs but it was too late before they could leave any impact.

West Indies batted with total supremacy as the decent start by Kyle Mayers and Shamarah Brooks, despite losing Shai Hope in an early dismissal. Kyle scored 75 runs while Brooks managed to pull of 46 runs before both were cleaned up by Shardul Thakur. Thereafter Brandon King continued the dominance and India were in great trouble as the young team led by new skipper Shikhar Dhawan was finding hard solutions to these dominant smashing shots. However Chahal managed to pull some bits and pieces but the magical inning of Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd will be close to the Windies’ heart as their score of 32 runs and 39 runs respectively made it close to the target but just 3 runs away from the win which was disheartening to watch. Both the batsmen Akeal and Romario remained not-out.

“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,” says WI skipper Nicholas Pooran

With a close win by the blues, this competition looks fierce and as expected that it would be one sided, it does not seem like that anymore, specially after the West Indies’ batting dominance. This battle will continue and the fans of both the nation will watch out for the next ODI soon.