India vs West Indies 1st ODI: Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan starred in big India win

In what looked like a lop-sided contest right from the start, India’s decision to alter the batting order didn’t yield deserving results as they lost five wickets en route to a paltry run chase of 115.

India’s Batting Order Baffles

In what should have been a bigger win margin for India, captain Rohit Sharma had to walk in at number seven to bat and take his team home as the batters – promoted above him threw their wickets away while attempting risky shots.

Senior batter Virat Kohli didn’t walk to bat, raising questions over what did the team management achieve with this approach. The only possible justification could be that the skipper wanted to give some game time to these players – who were coming into action after a long break.

Ishan Kishan – who got preference over Sanju Samson in the playing eleven – walked into the middle to open the batting for India and the left-handed batter grabbed the opportunity with both hands by scoring 46-ball 52. His knock was laced with seven boundaries and one maximum.

SKY-Gill throw wickets

Shubman Gill (7), Suryakumar Yadav (19), Hardik Pandya (5), and Shardul Thakur (1) were the other batters to be dismissed. While Pandya was unlucky to get run out but others were guilty of playing rash strokes. Eventually, Ravindra Jadea (16*) and captain Rohit (12*) guided their team home in 22.5 overs.

For West Indies, spinner Gudakesh Motie was the pick of the bowlers as the left-arm spinner finished with figures of 2/26 from 6.5 overs. He was getting a decent purchase from the surface and kept Indian batters on the tenterhooks. Barring him, no other host bowler could pose much trouble to the Indian batting line-up.

Earlier in the day, Jadeja tightened the noose and Kuldeep Yadav went for the final kill as an out-of-sorts West Indies were bowled out for 114 in just 23 overs after India opted to bowl first. No batter applied themselves on the surface right from the start of the innings.

Faulty batting lets Windies down, again

Hardik (1/17 in 3 overs), starting with the new ball alongside debutant Mukesh Kumar (1/22 in 5 overs), set the tone with a tight first spell before Jadeja and Kuldeep finished the innings in a jiffy.

Skipper Shai Hope’s 43 was the top score for the hosts as only two other batters were able to cross the double-digit mark. Once Jadeja (6-0-37-3) and Kuldeep (3-2-6-4) operated in tandem, the West Indies team didn’t have the quality to survive on a track that had extra bounce to trouble the batters.

Kyle Mayers wanted to free himself and only managed a slog that went to skipper Rohit Sharma at mid-on while Jadeja timed his jump to perfection at point to latch on to an Alick Athanaze (22 off 18 balls) slash after a brief but adventurous stay at the crease.

Shardul Thakur (1/14 in 3 overs) then bowled a perfect in-cutter to clan up Brandon King (17) as the gulf in standard was pretty evident, and why West Indies failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup was as clear as daylight.

With the pitch offering a bit of pace, both Jadeja and Kuldeep were able to hurry the batters as Shimron Hetmyer’s (11 off 19 balls) struggles were apparent while trying an ugly lap-scoop off Jadeja.

In the case of another T20 star Rovman Powell, he couldn’t gauge the turn that Jadeja got off the surface while Kuldeep forced the West Indies skipper to try an uncharacteristic reverse sweep and embarrassingly get yorked in the process.

Kuldeep’s googlies (one that turns away from right-handers) were unplayable for most of the Caribbean batters. Most of the bowling changes made by Rohit worked wonderfully well.

(With PTI inputs)