India vs West Indies, first ODI: Reasons for WI's loss in the first ODI
India continued their domination over Windies as they chased down the target of 322 runs with more than seven overs to spare. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma scored magnificent tons as they smashed the Windies bowlers all over the park. On a hot afternoon in Guwahati, India won the toss and asked Windies to bat first.
Shimron Hetmyer scored a stroke-filled 100 of just 74 balls, which helped Windies to put up a good total on board. He had a personal liking for Ravindra Jadeja as he smashed the left-arm spinner for 42 runs of his bowling.
Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers for the Indian team with 3 crucial wickets. He varied his pace to extract spin on a flat deck and it paid rich dividends.
After a drubbing in test series, Windies were expected to give a tough fight in the ODI series, but their fortune did not change as they succumbed to another loss against Kohli's eleven.
Let us look at the reasons why Windies lost the first ODI in Guwahati.
Lack of big partnerships
Windies had a good start in the powerplay despite losing debutant Chandrapaul Hemraj for just nine runs. They scored at a good run rate of 6 per over but kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Kieran Powell and Shai Hope started off well by attacking the leggie Yuzvendra Chahal right from the start. But as soon as Khaleel Ahmed was brought into the attack, he broke the partnership and the Windies further lost two more wickets in the space of six overs.
This trend continued during the middle overs as Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell were threatening to take the score beyond 350, but Powell’s poor shot selection gave India more than a sniff to come back into the game.
Skipper Jason Holder looked good for his 38 but he was bowled around the legs, trying to sneak a single off the bowling of Chahal. If the Windies had one big partnership they could have scored another 30 to 40 runs, which could have been decisive as India’s lower middle order isn’t in the greatest of batting form.