Ravindra Jadeja. (Pic source: RANDY BROOKS/AFP)
Seven wickets from the duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav followed by a cautious fifty from Ishan Kishan helped India beat West Indies by five wickets in the first of three ODIs at Bridgetown. India lead the series 1-0
Speaking about the game, the coin spun in the visitor’s favour, as they opted to field first. Hardik Pandya drew the first blood as Kyle Mayers departed for 2 off 9 balls. Alick Athanaze and Brandan King kept the scoreboard ticking with 38 run stand for the second wicket before Athanaze became the first victim of debutant Mukesh Kumar while Shardul Thakur cleaned up King in the very next over.
Once the powerplay got over, the left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav rattled the West Indies batting by picking seven wickets between them, as they bowl out WI for 114 runs. Shai Hope was the only batter who looked positive with a score of 43 off 45 balls. Jadeja completed the innings with a spell of 3/37 while Kuldeep Yadav ended the innings with a spell of 4/6.
Chasing 115, the duo of Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill opened the innings for India in order to Test the batting before World Cup. The ploy backfired as Shubman Gill continued his poor form, getting dismissed to Jayden Seales for 7 runs. Suryakumar Yadav was promoted to number three and he had a good start for 19 runs before getting dismissed to Gudakesh Motie, while Hardik Pandya got run out cheaply for 5 runs.
Ishan Kishan registered his fourth fifty before becoming the second victim of Motie for 52 off 46. India was left at 97/5 forcing Rohit Sharma to bat. Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma made sure there were no further slip-ups in the wickets section as they took India over the line by 5 wickets.
Meanwhile, let us look at the stats and numbers from the first ODI between West Indies and India
44 -Ravindra Jadeja (44) surpassed Kapil Dev’s tally of 43 wickets to become the leading wicket-taker for India against West Indies
2 -West Indies (114) registered their second-lowest ODI totals against India. Their lowest total of 104 came at Thiruvananthapuram in 2018
23 -West Indies were bowled out in 23 overs, the second least number of overs batted by them in ODI. 22 was the lowest number of overs batted by them in all-out innings in ODI which came against Bangladesh at Chattogram in 2011.
23 -India bowled out West Indies for 23 overs, this is the joint-third lowest number of overs bowled by India to bowl out the opponent.
1 -This is the first instance of left-arm spinners taking seven or more wickets for India in ODIs.
3 -The total of 114 against India is the third joint lowest total for West Indies at home ODIs. 98 against Pakistan at Providence in 2013 tops the list followed by 108 against Bangladesh at the same venue in 2022.
9 -Ninth consecutive win for India against West Indies in ODIs.
163 -India defeated West Indies with 163 balls to spare, the second most despite losing five + wickets. Lanka tops the list against Australia with 180 balls to spare while winning the game.