February 6, 2022 – India started its home season positively, as their bowlers came to the party against the mighty West Indies on the first ODI of the series.
Rohit Sharma’s first assignment as the full-time all-format captain of India started on a good note when he called the toss right and elected to bowl first.
If the call at the toss was right, the decision to bowl first was even better, as they bundled out the West Indies for a paltry 176 runs.
The first exploit came through Siraj, who bowled opener Shai Hope after getting hammered for two consecutive boundaries.
Fellow opener Brandon King and Darren Bravo tried to build a partnership, but Washington Sundar soon dismissed both the set batters in the same over.
Brooks and Pooran got to a good start but couldn’t capitalize on it, as they ended up losing their wickets to Chahal, who also dismissed Pollard on a golden duck.
Akeal Hosein only managed to stay in the crease for an over, as Prasidh Krishna got the better of him.
Fabian Allen then joined Jason Holder at the crease and rebuilt the innings. The former was aggressive in his approach, and he counterattacked the Indian bowlers and soon reached his fifty.
The two looked in great touch and calmly built a 78 run partnership. But Sundar came in and removed Fabian Allen with a soft dismissal, and Rohit brought in Prasidh, who quickly ended Holder’s innings with the partnership broke.
Chahal ended the West Indies innings on his final over as WI could only bat till the 43rd over with 176 runs on the board.
India would look to chase this total and win after their debacle in the South African series, where they lost the series 0-3.
Earlier the Indian side observed a minute silence in memory of late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar.
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