Team India’s batting gremlins vanish without a trace
Nagpur, Jan 21: Riding on a stunning opening partnership between Ganguly and Gambhir, India piled 338 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in the first one-day international against the West Indies at the VCA stadium in Nagpur on Sunday. Ganguly, India’s new comeback icon, showed what he’s made of by hitting 98 runs before getting out.

India’s latest experiment with the opening pair came good with both southpaws giving the team a great start. The Prince of Kolkata was unfortunate to miss a century by just 2 runs as he got run out reducing India to 219 for 3.

Gautam Gambhir made an impressive 69 before falling in the 25th over. India were 144-1, as a result of Gambhir’s departure. Tendulkar arrived one down to build on the good start by the openers. The Master Blaster, however, once again disappointed his fans when he departed for just 31 runs.

Dhoni was among the runs too, as he played a blistering knock scoring his 11th ODI fifty. Dravid followed suit scoring his 74th ODI fifty from the other end. Dravid was unbeaten at 54. Dhoni remained not out at 62 at the end of Indian innings.

Ganguly and Gambhir took India past the hundred run mark in 15 overs.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss and elected to field.

India left out Ramesh Powar from the 12 announced yesterday while West Indies omitted Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith and Reyad Emrit from their touring squad.

Teams:

India: Rahul Dravid (capt.), Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK), Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan.

West Indies: Brian Lara (Capt.), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin (WK), Ian Bradshaw, Darren Powell, Jerome Taylor.

Hours of play: 9 am to 12 30 pm; 1 15 pm to close.

Umpires: Billie Bowden (New Zealand) and Suresh Shastri (India)

Third Umpire: G A Pratap Kumar (India).

Match referee: Alan Hurst (Australia).