Samuels guides WI

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels salutes the Kochi crowd after scoring a fluent hundred against India in the first ODI yesterday. Samuels later took two wickets to guide his side to a 124-run victory. PHOTO: CRICINFO

West Indies put behind an acrimonious pay dispute with their Board to spank number one ranked India by a huge margin of 124 runs in the first one-dayer to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series in Kochi yesterday.

West Indies, who were on the verge of boycotting the ODI, rode on Marlon Samuels' career-best equalling 126 not out to post 321 for six and then shot out the Indians for 197 in 41 overs in a rather one-sided contest at the Nehru Stadium.

India paid the price for some mediocre bowling and shoddy batting as they were outplayed by the crisis-hit visiting team in all departments of the game to suffer a heavy defeat.

Indian bowlers gave away too many runs at the second part of West Indies innings to allow the visitors pile up a big total after being put into bat and then the much-vaunted home batsmen, except for Shikhar Dhawan (68), failed to fire on a batting pitch.

Most of Indian batsmen were out on poor shot selection and they could not stitch any substantial partnership in the face of some tight bowling by the visiting bowlers, the highest being the 49 in 8.4 overs for the opening wicket between Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane (24). Dhawan's scratchy 68 came from 92 balls with the help of nine fours.

Ravindra Jadeja (33 not out) was the other Indian batsman who scored more than 20 runs.

West Indies, even without their mystery spinner Sunil Narine, could tie down the top Indian batsmen who failed to get the runs when required.

Chasing a huge target of 322 for a win, India could not get to a good start as Rahane was run out in a bizarre mixed-up in the ninth over with just 49 on board.

For West Indies, Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Rampaul and Marlon Samuels grabbed two wickets apiece while Jerome Taylor, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy took a wicket each.

SCORES IN BRIEF
WEST INDIES: 321 for 6 in 50 overs (Smith 46, Bravo 28, Samuels 126 not out, Ramdin 61; Shami 4-66)
INDIA: 197 all out in 41 Overs (Dhawan 68, Jadeja 33 not out; Samuels 2-10, Bravo 2-28)
Result: West Indies won by 124 runs.
Man-of-the-match: Marlon Samuels.