India began the tour well by winning the 1 off T20 against a depleted West Indies side. This win was India's first ever in T20Is against West Indies. Strange fact given how weak the Windies has been over years now and yet India had to wait so long for the win.
The short ball woes, it looked would return again to haunt the inexperienced lads, when Dhawan got out to Samy in 3rd / 4th over. That was a nothing shot and Dhawan had no clue what to do for the delivery. Patel and Kohli then rebuilt for a while before Sammy returned to take 3 more wickets to leave India at 4/56.
Kohli, Raina and Patel dismissed. And then our Chennai hero Dabrinath settled to a run a ball knock which was sufficient on the uneven, turning pitch and alongside Rohit Sharma he led India to a decent 159/6 after a miraculous 72 runs off last 5 overs.
West Indies were given early blows by Munnabhai and IPL Ashvin, but Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo batted without sense and urgency till 16th over without losing further wicket and any sense of urgency to win. And when the surge came, it was too late for them as run rate had already climbed 17 a over. Hyatt and Barnwell put up a fight though, it was an easy win for India by 16 runs.
What is very disgusting to see is 3 good players of T20 -- 2 of them hyped in the IPL were not part of Windies team. Gayle, Pollard and senior Bravo. WICB has to get its act straight to get its best players playing in a team to have any chances of revival in the international cricket, else its all downhill for them.
