Despite Chanderpaul's innings , Indians break first Jinx ...

Team India have finally managed to get a One-Day win under their belt but not before a nail biting finish against West Indies in the first ODI at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Sunday.

Giving a sparkling display of attacking batting, the host batsmen piled on a massive 338/3 in their 50 over but the West Indians were not to be cowed down as they went about chasing the target in trademark Caribbean style spanking the ball all around park.

However, in the end the visitors, despite man of the match Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s brilliant unbeaten 149 (16x4, 3x6) off 136 balls, fell short of the target to give the hosts victory by 14 runs to trail the four-match ODI series 0-1.

The Indian total was built around the good work by led by comeback man Sourav Ganguly who played a responsible knock of 98 ((11x4, 3x6) off 109 balls while Ganguly, back in the One-Day squad after nearly a year, played an innings that showed his full array of shots while his opening partner Gautam Gambhir came up with a well-made 69 off 75 balls as India took the early honours.

The wicket was tailor-made for batting with the host batsmen hitting 21 fours and 10 sixes while the visitors sent the ball to the boundary 35 times and six times over the boundary.
Most of the batsmen made full use of the ideal wicket conditions as the bowlers were made to look pedestrian.

However, both Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara missed the party though they showed glimpses of their talent scoring 31 each.

West Indies began the chase with Chris Gayle and Chanderpaul with the latter starting the scoring with two consecutive fours off S Sreesanth.

Sreesanth was again at the receiving end with Gayle being grassed by Sachin Tendulkar at the first slip. The batsman was on 11 and he celebrated the reprieve by sending the ball out of the ground for three consecutive fours in the same over.

With Chanderpaul too not missing any opportunity to score runs, the West Indies scoreboard was moving at a fast pace. Gayle was dealing in boundaries with none of the Indian bowlers making any impact on him.

Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar were either too short or too wide giving enough width to the Caribbean batsmen to free their hands and play the shots.

Gayle brought up his 29th ODI 50 but was soon caught at the first slip by Rahul Dravid off Harbhajan Singh after making 52 with the help of 10 hits to the boundary.

The scoring rate dipped after Gayle’s departure and soon the second Caribbean batsman in the form of Runako Morton departed cleaned up by Harbhajan.

With the asking rate climbing and the Harbhajan and Tendulkar doing a good job in restricting the West Indians to well below the asking rate, the pressure started to mount.

Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels did try to up the scoring rate and both even lofted the ball outside the ground once each but failed to break the shackles.

Dravid then gave the ball to Zaheer who again did a good job and bowled Morton who was batting on 40 (3x4, 1x6) to bring the third West Indies wicket down.

That brought West Indies skipper Brain Lara in the middle and seeing the asking rate breaking through the roof he wasted little time in showing his class.

Taking the bull by the horns, Lara soon started to score freely hitting Harbhajan and Tendulkar for two massive sixes. But just when it looked that he would take the game away from India, Tendulkar fired a delivery outside the off stump.

Lara jumped out of the crease only to beaten and Dhoni coolly dislodged the bails. The Caribbean batting maestro scored 31 runs (2x4, 2x6).However, at the other end Chanderpaul had already reached his fifth ODI ton and was looking dangerous & but couldn't stop the Indians.