India defeated the mighty Windies by 8 wickets in the first
ODI in Guwahati. West Indies after batting first gave India a target of 323. Shimron
Hetmyer scored a brilliant century to guide the team to a mammoth score, a
little cameo from Bishoo and Roach helped them to reach the total. Chahal picked
up three wickets and Shami and Jadeja shared two wickets each. In replay India
lost Dhawan early and that was followed by massive 246 run partnership between
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Both of them got their century before Kohli was
stumped by Shai Hope. Later Rohit Sharma finished things off in style for
India, he scored 152 off just 117 balls. Virat Kohli was adjusted the man of
the match for his 140 off just 107 balls.
Earlier India won the toss and elected to field first, Virat
mentioned that there was a bit of grass on the field and there will also be dew
in the later part of the innings which will be helpful for the batsmen. Rishabh
Pant made his ODI debut in the match replacing Dinesh Kartik in the squad, this
has also added an extra left handed option in the batting line up. During the
toss the Windies captain Jason Holder mentioned that they didn’t mind batting
first on this wicket and this is the opportunity for the youngsters to make an
impact before the world cup. Oshane Thomas and Chandrapaul Hemraj have also
made their debut in the match for West Indies.
It was an important toss to win for India, India dropped
Kuldeep Yadav and opted to play with an extra pacer and hence Khaleel Ahmed got
an opportunity to play his third ODI. Apart from Chahal all bowlers were
expensive and conceded more than 6 runs per over. Even the most economical
bowler of the side Ravindra Jadeja went for over 6 runs per over. India needed
an extra bowling option in the side but the absence of Kedar Jadhav was hurting
India at some point of the time when Shimron Hetmyer was at his best.
The Windies didn’t have a good outing with the ball, apart
from Jason Holder everyone conceded over 7 runs per over, even the early
breakthrough of Dhawan wasn’t enough to stop the class of Rohit and Virat.
Rohit Sharma went on to hit 8 6s and 15 4s, whereas 2 6s and 21 4s came from
the bat of Virat Kohli.
Before the start of the match former Indian Captain and
legendary cricketer Saurav Ganguly was felicitated by Assam Cricket
Association. Former cricketers like VVS
Laxman, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Murli Kartik, Deep Dasgupta, Nikhil Chopra,
Aakash Chopra, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil
Gavaskar, Darren Ganga, Ian Bishop were also present during the match.
In the year 1983 West Indies played against India in the
first ever ODI match at Nehru Stadium, Guwahati. Co-incidentally it was West
Indies again who played the first ODI at the newly constructed Barshapara
stadium in Guwahati.
India will be travelling to Visakhapatnam for the second ODI
which will be played on 24th of October. India is leading the five match ODI series by
1-0 and will look to continue their dominance in rest of the series. This win
by India in Guwahati will also ease the pain of the previous defeat against
Australia and as some of the cricket fans mentioned, this was a “Paisa Wasool” match.
Photo Gallery :
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| With the former West Indies cricketer Darren Ganga |
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| Aakash Chopra |
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| Team while singing National Anthem |
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| MS Dhoni |
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| Shimron Hetmyer after scoring century |
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| Hitman in action |
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| Virat and his 60th international century |
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| Rohit after his century |
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| Just before the presentation ceremony |
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