After winning the ODI series against England, India have started playing another ODI series against West Indies. However, West Indies have hosted this three-match ODI series, which started last night with the first match at Queen’s Park Oval.
Compared to the series against England, India have made several changes in their squad in this series. They have given rest to some senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. On the other hand, West Indies played their best possible XI in the first match.
Match Review
Nicholas Pooran, the captain of the West Indies, won the toss and decided to bowl first in the first game. So, India started their batting innings with Shubman Gill and the new captain, Shikhar Dhawan. Both batsmen were playing brilliantly on the pitch. They tried to be aggressive from the beginning of the match. Moreover, Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill picked up half-centuries in this match.
Unfortunately, their partnership ended in 119 runs as Shubman Gill lost his wicket in the 18th over. In addition, it was very unfortunate that Shikhar Dhawan missed the century by just three runs. He departed the pitch after scoring 97 runs. On the other hand, Shreyash Iyer added 54 runs at the top order. Relying on these big three scores, India set a massive target of 309 runs for the West Indies.
Chasing the big target, West Indies had a poor start as they lost their first wicket in 16 runs. But Kyle Mayers made a brilliant partnership with Sharmarh Brooks to handle the situation. They added 117 together on the scoreboard. However, Kyle Mayers picked up the half-century, but Sharmarh Brooks failed to do so. He lost his wicket in 46 runs. After a while, Kyle Mayers also left the pitch, scoring 76 runs.
After that, Brandon King tried hard to chase the target. With Nicholas Pooran, he added 51 runs on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, Pooran couldn’t stay long. Brandon King also lost his wicket after scoring 54 runs. But, Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd got very close to chasing the target. In the last over, West Indies needed 15 runs to win the match. But they were able to pick up only 11 runs. So, West Indies ended their innings in 305 runs. As a result, India won the first match by 3 runs.