After close to two months of frenetic-paced Twenty20 cricket, the first ODI between West Indies and India turned out to be just the kind of advertisement the game’s administrators do not want for the 50-over game; the pitch was a slow-paced one, the batsmen were left to generate all the pace by themselves, and even if they generated the required bat-speed, the ball would seldom reach the boundary. The outfield appeared to be pretty heavy, and but for a sparkling century by Yuvraj Singh – his 12th in ODIs, spectators at the Sabina Park, Kingston, would have returned home a disappointed lot.

Yuvraj’s innings was the cornerstone of India’s daunting total of 339 for 5, which they managed to defend in the end to go one-up in the four-match series.

The Punjab southpaw walked in to bat in the eighth over with his team in a spot of bother at 32 for 2 and held centre stage until the 39th over, by which time he had scored 131 runs off a mere 102 balls and hit 10 boundaries and seven sixes. A shaky starter, Yuvraj struggled early on. He was beaten by the little away movement that the West Indies bowlers got early in the innings and crawled to 20 from 38 balls.

However, having survived the difficult period, Yuvraj then decided to open up and played some fluent strokes all over the park with remarkable ease He targeted the two spinners – Suleiman Benn and Chris Gayle – to get the momentum into his innings. He scored 24 runs off 13 balls bowled by Gayle and 29 runs from 24 balls against Benn. He also ruined Jerome Taylor’s otherwise impressive figures by scoring 29 runs off two overs when the batting power play was in force. Just when he looked all set to register his highest score in ODI, he was out to a soft dismissal. While trying to flick a leg stump delivery, he only managed to tickle it to the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, who pulled off a brilliant single-handed catch, diving full length to his right.

While Yuvraj was no doubt the star of the show, there were other useful contributions as well. Though Gautam Gambhir (13) and Rohit Sharma (4) were bounced out yet again, Dinesh Karthik made the most of being given yet another chance to play for India and impressed with the bat and intent. His 67 (77 balls) included a ‘Dilshan-shot’ which sailed over the short fine-leg for six and six other boundaries. Despite the early setbacks, it was his partnership with Yuvraj that got the Indian innings back on track; the duo added a record 135 runs for the third wicket.

Post Karthik’s dismissal, Yuvraj found an able ally in captain MS Dhoni (41). The duo added 86 runs in quick time. In fact, they scored 62 runs in the five-over batting power play period between overs 34 and 38.

Soon after the batting powerplay, India lost Yuvraj and Ravindra Jadeja to successive deliveries and the West Indies were back in the game. Dwayne Bravo and Benn then pulled things back for their team as Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan struggled to find the boundaries. Though 82 runs were scored in the final 10 overs, India only managed to hit four boundaries and as many sixes in that period.

Chasing a target of 340 was never going to be easy, but the West Indies put up a stiff fight nevertheless. Chris Gayle and Runako Morton got them off to a fine start. They scored 60 runs in the first nine overs when Ashish Nehra, playing his first one-day international in four years, had the West Indian captain caught at mid-on.

Though the Indian spinners made run-scoring a difficult proposition, Ramnaresh Sarwan (45 off 42 balls) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (63 from 59 balls) used all their experience in tackling them and kept the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos. With Sarwan perishing to a needless run out, Chanderpaul holing out to mid-wicket in search of quick runs, and Bravo at the receiving end of a controversial umpiring decision, it was left to the lower order to take them past the target.

However, despite some help from the Indian bowlers, who seemed to lose their radar while bowling at the death and useful contributions from debutant Darren Bravo (19), Jerome Taylor (21), Denesh Ramdin (29) and Dave Bernard (19), the West Indies were bowled out for 319, falling short by 20 runs.

Ashish Nehra was impressive in his first outing in India colours and finished with figures of 3 for 49 from 7.1 overs, while Yusuf Pathan also had a major share in the spoils, returning with figures of 3 for 56 from his eight overs. Harbhajan Singh (1 for 56) and RP Singh (1 for 44) bowled well, but lacked the discipline and conceded way too many extras. Ishant Sharma, who was expected to lead the pack, was disappointing to say the least. He conceded 38 runs in his five overs and looked only a distant shadow of the champion bowler who tormented Ricky Ponting and his boys last year.