Cuttack, Nov 29: Rohit Sharma made his comeback to the Indian ODI side with a solid performance that saw India recover from 59 for five and chase down the West Indies score of 211 with a wicket to spare in the first ODI of the five-match series. Sharma, who was the Man-of-the-Series when India won the five-match ODI series in the Caribbean earlier in the year, scored 72 to guide India’s run chase.
Virender Sehwag won the toss and opted to field in front of a packed crowd at the Barabati Stadium here in Cuttack. It wasn’t the best of starts as Adrian Barath (17), Marlon Samuels (10) and Lendl Simmons (19) were back in the pavilion just as the 10th over had been completed.
Darren Bravo anchored the West Indies innings from there on, the left-hander hitting 60 off 74 balls in what was a continuation of his good form from the Test series. Bravo added 75 for the fourth wicket with Danza Hyatt (31) before some sloppy running between the wickets cost the latter his wicket.
The West Indies imploded after Hyatt’s departure in the 27th over. Bravo was knocked over by part-time spinner Suresh Raina while the dangerous Kieron Pollard (13) was removed by R Ashwin to leave the visitors at 159 for six in 36.5 overs.
Darren Sammy fell for a duck to Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin while Denesh Ramdin (14) and Andre Russell (22) were felled by Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron respectively. Yadav was India’s most successful bowler with figures of two for 33 from his six overs as the visitors were restricted to 211 for nine in 50 overs. Ashwin too put in an impressive performance with figures of 10-1-30-1.
The hosts’ fortunes fluctuated dramatically during the run chase. After knocking off 37 runs in the first four overs, India lost five top-order wickets to Kemar Roach and Andre Russell for the addition of just another 22 runs.
With India looking to fold well short of the target, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja orchestrated a sensational comeback. The pair added 83 runs in 17.1 overs which helped India recover from 59 for five and put them on course for victory.
Kieron Pollard then had Jadeja (38) flashing at a delivery which went straight to Lendl Simmons at point; the all-rounder make his way back to the Indian dressing room after a 62-ball 38. 142 for six would soon deteriorate to 159 for seven in 31.5 overs as R Ashwin (6) found himself run-out for the second time in four days.
Sharma, meanwhile, batted sensibly to bring up his half-century off 62 deliveries. However, with India needing 11 off the last 29 deliveries, Anthony Martin cleaned up Sharma (72) while Vinay Kumar (18) was caught by Roach off Darren Sammy’s bowling in the 47th over to provide an interesting twist to the match.
Varun Aaron (6*) and Umesh Yadav (6*), however, survived a couple of anxious moments and struck a boundary each in the penultimate over to give India a nervy one-wicket win.
Brief scores: India 213/9 in 48.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 72, Ravindra Jadeja 38, Kemar Roach 3/46) beat West Indies 211/9 in 50.0 overs (Darren Bravo 60, Danza Hyatt 31, Umesh Yadav 2/33) by 1 wicket
Man-of-the-match: Rohit Sharma for his battling innings of 72 (off 99 balls)
