Gayle sets off

The West Indies chase began in the right earnest with Chris Gayle (37) and Morton quickly putting up 65 for the first wicket before comeback man Nehra got rid of the skipper. Gayle miscued a pull off the left-armer and Harbhajan Singh took a smart running catch at mid-on. Morton’s entertaining knock in which he hit four boundaries and a six ended when Yusuf had him caught behind.

The hosts maintained a good run-rate to keep their hopes alive but continued losing their settled batsmen. The big-hitting Dwayne Bravo (8) though was extremely unlucky as he got out off a high full-toss from Ishant Sharma but umpires did not call that a no-ball.

Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo, making his debut, added 36 quick runs but just when the partnership had started looking threatening Yusuf separated the pair by dismissing the former. Chanderpaul had just hit Yusuf for a massive six but failed to do an encore hitting straight to Ravinder Jadeja at deep mid-wicket but not before hitting three fours and three sixes in his 59-ball knock.

The two sides meet again on Sunday at the same venue for the second ODI of the four-match series.

Brief scores: India 339/6 in 50 overs (D Karthik 67, Y Singh 131, MS Dhoni 41, Y Pathan 40 not out; D Bravo 2/66); West Indies 319 all out in 48.1 overs (C Gayle 37, R Morton 42, R Sarwan 45, S Chanderpaul 63; A Nehra 3/49, Y Pathan 3/56).