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India vs West Indies - 1st ODI Sabina Park, Jamaica.

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The match Preview.

Do you remember when was the last time when India played West Indies in an one day international??

I hope you do. It was in August 2005 in that Indian Oil Cup in Srilanka. It was a tri series and India had beaten West Indies in the first encounter, while the second one went lot closer - still Team India winning it by 7 runs. Here's that scorecard to refresh you memory.

India had made 262 while batting first and were winning the match comfortably before Runako Morton and wicket keeper Denesh Ramdim made our heart beat faster...

And talking about India vs West Indies ODIs, let me also inform you that there has been one tied one day match between India and West Indies in a tally of 74 matches so far. India has won 30 while West Indies 46. That tie one day international between India and West Indies was played at WACA ground in Perth, Australia. The interesting about that tied ODI was that India were out done with West Indian fast bowling by Ambrose, Marshall and Cummins - 126 all out. It was raw pace and bounce that did Indians when they batted and it was "Banana swing" by Indian seamers - Kapil Dev, Prabhakar, Subrato Benergee and Srinath. Rai Sharti was the highest scorer in that tied ODI with his 33, while as many as 12 batsmen were out without reaching a double figure.

Here is that scorecard.

Ok then. That it. Lets not concentrate on the match in hand - India vs West Indies at Jamaica and the weather doesn't look too India vs west indies.jpg

good. Thunder storms are predicted for the today but its very unlikely that rain will continue for a very long period - if it at all comes. So If you are an Indian, you might have to wait way deep into the night to watch some cricket match. See the timing of India vs West Indies matches..

For the Pitch, its been heard that West Indians have done the same thing that all of World does to Team India - make grassy wickets. Its been quite a while that Indian batting has been the best in the World and whenever a team is unsure of their bowling to get Indians out, they make bouncy and grassy wickets. Be it Pakistan, New Zealand or South Africa. But I am not sure if West Indies have the batting to make whatever Indians make on Jamaica Wicket. Indian team is as strong in bowling these days, since they have started to play 5 genuine bowlers. Indians believe that if we can chase any target, we can also bowl out the opposition to any total. Lets wait and watch what actually happens...

More on this first India vs West Indies ODI.

-> One time there was Wisden cricket ratings. Then Ceat Cricket rating, Espn cricket rating and a hundred more. But Since ICC - the World body of cricket has started the ICC cricket rating, they have easily gathered the Worlds attention and nearly everyone follows it. So what changes can happen in this India vs West Indies series, how many points do Dhoni needs to overcome Ghilchrist, and Indian team ratings, read this article.

-> Agit Agarkar is the only bowler, I mean only fast bowler who has played in West Indies before and he will be the one with suggestions for other young Indian seamers. Here's an Interview with Agarkar where he promises to take the responsibility.

-> Sabina Park in Jamaica - the venue for India's first match on this tour, is the only ground in Cricket World where a cricket team match was called off because of "unappropriate pitch". That was the test match between England and West Indies. Here is more facts about Sabina Park.

India wins the first ODI. Here's how..

It started with lots and lots of overnight rain. If you remember correctly, last time India were in West Indies in 2002, all the two ODI's scheduled at this Sabina Park in Jamaica were washed out without a single ball being bowled. In fact, it had rained for 11 consecutive days non stop in Jamaica at that time and situation after 4 years looked very similar... at least in terms of rain.

But we all know that Cricket World Cup will be played in West Indies in less than a year, and that was the reason that we had a match between India and West Indies today. The pitch was nicely covered but the out filed was the concern for the umpires. Or no concern at all as it socked at least two inches of water in just few hours. I hear that they have changed the mud at Sabina Park in Jamaica and a ground that had the history of cricket matches being washed out, now is one of the best draining ground. Hence, we had a match of 45 overs.

The filed restrictions -
First 10 overs mandatory.
Power Play 1 :- 5 overs.
Power Play 2 :- 3 overs.

First over from Irfan Pathan was not something that he will be proud of. It read - wd 0 wd wd 4 nb 1 0 0 4nb 0, which equals to be 14 runs. This set the very much tone of the match from then on as West Indies openers looked to hit Indian medium pacers out of the ground. Munaf Patel was bowling with Irfan Pathan, who - after bowling a maiden over in second over, gave away 25 runs in his first three over and forced Dravid to bring in Rudra Pratap Singh.

That also didn't worked for India ad Chris Gayle was hitting indian seamers with a lot of ease. Runako Mortan looked to play everything on the front foot and things looked bad for India.... till Agarkar came into to bowl. He bowled a brilliant first over and got the wicket in second over. Then Harbhajan Singh started a masterful show of Off Spin bowling which West Indies didn't knew much about.

India looked to pull things back as Lara and Gayle consolidated their fast start. Things were set for lots of fire works in the last 6-7 overs, when West Indies were 220 in 39th over. But thats when the superiority of Indian team showed. Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and specially Agit Agarkar bowled the perfect line length to restrict West Indies at least 20 runs short. They finished with 251 for 6 in 45 overs.

Indian batting started in the usual manner. Sabina Park was nearly full by this time and this first ODI between India and West Indies looked to be a lot better contest than many might have thought. Chasing at a rate of more than 6 runs per over,, that too against West Indies fast bowlers in West Indies, and more so when Indian's have had just over practise match in Caribbean pitch so far, I asked myself - am I a f

ool to be awake at 2 am in the morning when my brother snoring at some decibel!!

But to tell you the fact, sleep was not possible for me. It never was. I am crazy about cricket since I was a kid and generated a nack of supporting my team till the very end. no matter what.

Sehwag was trying to hit in his usual fashion but the pitch didn't really suited to his batting. He hit two balls in gully region, but west Indies captain hadn't had employed a gully fielder. And one more important thing - Indians had done their homework of expecting short balls from West Indies fast bowlers. although there were not many pitched short, both openers looked to play pull/hook and specially Dravid was looking good. Sehwag fell at 56, Pathan at 62 and Yuvraj at 86, but dravid continued to bat like a true captain and being a batsmen who had some Caribbean experience, he stood at one end and looked for a partner on the other.

Mohammad Kaif came in. He was short of runs and to tell you the fact, he made 66 runs but never looked like regaining his form. He was playing 4 dot balls even till the second last over of the match, but most importantly, he never gave up. ..

India needed 74 off last 10 over and things looked 50-50 at that time. or may be 60-40 as India had 7 good wickets in hand. Those wickets came in handy when Dravid got out, trying to hit a six (he hit two sixes al right), in came Mahendra singh Dhoni and in just a matter of 10 balls, he made 18 runs but got out on the 11th one.

Runs required and balls remaining were chasing each other and India, at times looked to have the upper hand, then West Indies got a brilliant over from Jerome Tylor. This was bowled at Mohammad Kaif, who was batting at 60 but failed to take a single off the first 5 balls. The sixth ball yielded a leg-by for him.

India needed 4 runs off the last over and 2 runs off the last 2 balls, but some cool head and confident batting from Indians saw them through. Having a match of this quality in the very first ODI of the 5 match series, I am sure we Indians are going to miss a lot of sleep in the coming 40 days...

The scorecard.

Its Only Cricket

India vs West Indies - 1st ODI Sabina Park, Jamaica.

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