West Indies score 54 for 1 in 13 overs
Providence: West Indies were 54 for 1 in 13 overs after second rain interruption in a stop-start first one-dayer against India, which was reduced to 34-over-a-side match, here on Thursday.
Opener Evin Lewis and Shai Hope were batting on 40 and 6 respectively at the rain break after Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and asked the West Indies to bat.
The other opener Chris Gayle was out in the 11th over after scoring 4 off 31 deliveries in an agonisingly slow knock. He had come into the match 12 runs short of Brian Lara’s 10,405 ODI runs, the most by a West Indies batsman. The match was already reduced to 43-over-a side even before a ball being bowled as the wet outfield due to rains had forced the toss to be delayed. The match began two hours later than the original 7pm IST start. The first rain interruption was when the home side had scored 9 for no loss in 5.4 overs.
The match was about to be resumed 30 minutes later but the wet area near the bowlers’ run-up led to another delay of more than half an hour. The Indian fielders and the two West Indies batsmen — Gayle and Lewis — came out to the ground but Kohli was seen having a discussion with the umpires. Play did not start immediately as the umpires reckoned the ground staff need more time to get the ground ready. Kohli and some other Indian players were seen shaking their legs for a while, moving to the tunes of the DJ at the venue.
The players later walked off the field and the ground staff were seen spraying a lot of sawdust on the wet areas. The umpires made another inspection and after more than an hour’s interruption, the match resumed for a 34-over-a-side affair. Gayle and Lewis picked up steam after the long interruption. Lewis hit Khaleel Ahmed for 15 runs with a six and two fours in the eighth over but the introduction of wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav put some brakes on the West Indians batsmen. Kuldeep gave India the breakthrough as he dismissed dangerman Gayle who dragged the ball onto his stumps.
Hope came in two overs later, but rains also came back to force the players to the dressing room once again. Earlier, India did not take the DRS when Lewis looked plumbed in front of wicket in the fourth over off the bowling of Mohammed Shami. Replays showed the ball would have gone on to hit the leg stump but India did not opt for a review. Lewis was on 1 then. Earlier Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to field in the first one-dayer against West Indies after the match was reduced to 43-over-a-side affair due to rains here on Thursday.
The wet outfield due to rains before the start of the match forced the toss to be delayed.In February 2019, Chris Gayle announced his retirement from ODI cricket, and he last played in a Test match in September 2014, against Bangladesh.
However, in June 2019, during the Cricket World Cup, Gayle expressed his desire to play in the ODI matches for the West Indies, and possibly a Test match as well.
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed.
West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Shai Hope (wk), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Kemar Roach. (PTI)