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India put an end to their three-match losing streak squeezing a narrow 20 run win over the West Indies thanks predominantly to a belligerent 102 ball innings of 131 from man-of-the-match Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj showed that there was still plenty of life in an Indian batting line-up missing big guns Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Yuvi shared two decisive partnerships with the Indian wicketkeepers - first 135 for the 3rd wicket with Dinesh Karthik, followed by a breezy 86 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as India posted a mammoth 339 for 6 in the first innings. West Indies made a contest of it, posting 319 in reply thanks to some handy contributions from their top order and some late hitting from the lower middle order. However, the one area where they lacked was a batsman carrying on and making a big score, leaving a little too much for their bowlers to do, in the end falling one behind in this four match series.

The full story...

India won the toss and elected to bat first on a good looking pitch, but on a rather grassy outfield. The recall to the national squad was complete for Ashish Nehra, who would be playing his first international match in four years for India. Joining him in the playing eleven was wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who could slot in pretty much anywhere in the top order. The Windies had a debutant in their squad. Allrounder Dwayne Bravo's younger brother Darren was given his ODI debut, meaning there was no place in the playing eleven for Ravi Rampaul and Narsingh Deonarine.

Lionel Baker and Jerome Taylor shared the new ball, and as expected peppered the Indian batsman with some short pitched stuff straight away. Rather surprisingly Karthik was promoted up the order to open the batting with Gautam Gambhir, with Rohit Sharma slotted to come in at number 3.

Karthik and Gambhir took an early liking to Lionel Baker, helping themselves to 13 runs in his opening over, however a short ball from Jerome Taylor put to rest Gambhir's hopes of a big innings, and a similar delivery proved to be Rohit Sharma's undoing as India slumped to 32 for 2 in the 8th over.

Yuvraj came in at no. 4 to join Karthik, and played the junior partner for most of his early innings, happy to collect the singles and play himself in. Karthik did the bulk of the scoring, taking India through to a respectable 75 for 2 at the end of the first two powerplays. Dwayne Bravo almost made Yuvraj pay for his slow start as he made a valiant attempt to get to the end of a half-chance off his own bowling, but just couldn't get his fingers under the ball.

Dinesh Karthik brought up a well compiled half century with a six over the wicketkeeper's head in the following over (the 20th). It appeared to be an attempted ‘Dilshan', great result, but not as well executed by his Delhi Daredevils teammate.

Yuvraj Singh opened his shoulders thereafter, hitting left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn for a boundary and Chris Gayle for a huge six over midwicket off successive overs. It became a hit an over, as Yuvraj found the fence or beyond from the 21st through to the 27th. However, a Benn over which conceded just 2 runs created some unnecessary pressure on the batsman, forcing Karthik to look for innovative ways to score. In his attempts to match Yuvraj, Karthik fell to David Bernard in the 29th over for a well made 67 from 77 balls.

The wicket stemmed the run flow temporarily, as Yuvraj knocked the ball around once again, giving his partner the opportunity to find his feet. A boundary off the last ball of the 33rd over signaled the perfect time for Dhoni to take the batting powerplay, and Yuvraj didn't disappoint his skipper as India picked up 16 runs off consecutive overs to race to 223 for 3 in 25 overs.

Yuvraj brought up his century too in the process with a quick single to the fielder at point, before hitting Taylor for consecutive sixes in the 37th over, after Dhoni too had hammered one off the very first ball.

India picked up 62 runs from the powerplay, but could not carry the momentum into the slog overs as they lost Yuvraj and Ravindra Jadeja off successive deliveries to Dwayne Bravo.

Dhoni and new-man-in Yusuf Pathan again went through the process of consolidation picking up just 9 runs from 3 overs, before launching into the bowling once again. Dhoni fell to an attempted stolen single in the 47th over, but not before the skipper had played a good hand with a neat 41 from 46.

Pathan and Harbhajan Singh brought out the long handle in the last few overs as India posted a massive 339 for 6 from their 50 overs.

The West Indies needed Superman Chris Gayle to match Yuvraj with the bat if they were to have any chance of staying close in this contest, and he looked good in the early exchanges racing to 37 before Ashish Nehra picked up the big wicket in his comeback game as Gayle mistimed the pull to Harbhajan at mid-on.

With his fast bowlers having conceded 70 in the first 10 overs, Dhoni took Gayle's dismissal as the perfect signal to introduce his spinners, bringing on allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan into the attack.

After a couple of quiet overs, the West Indies got back into attack mode as Morton and Sarwan helped themselves to a six each off Jadeja and Pathan respectively. Morton (41) was unfortunate to be given out caught behind off Pathan just when he was starting to look good. Replays seemed to indicate that the ball had kissed the thigh pad on its way through to Dhoni.

Morton's dismissal brought the veteran pair of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sarwan together and they went about the run chase professionally, with Sarwan taking chances to push the scoring rate along and Chanderpaul ensuring that the former skipper got as much of the strike as possible. However, a suicidal second run attempted just one ball after he had hit Yuvraj for a six found Sarwan inches short of his crease unable to beat RP Singh's throw from the deep. Despite the dismissal the West Indies were still well placed at 151 for 3 from 25 overs, as they went in search of what had just a few hours ago looked like an unlikely victory.

With Dwayne Bravo struggling to come to terms with the turning ball, Chanderpaul took over Sarwan's role of the aggressor, twice clearning the rope as Yuvraj Singh came in for some more tap. Bravo failed to provide much support for Chamdepaul falling to a full toss from the wayward Ishant Sharma for just 8 from 21 balls. He was replaced by younger brother Darren, who opened his international account with a couple of boundaries (albeit lucky ones) off the first two balls he faced.

With Chanderpaul soon past his half-century, the West Indies decided to cash in their batting powerplay and things started well as Chanderpaul deposited Yusuf Pathan over the square leg boundary. However like Sarwan he too fell immediately after hitting a maximum in an attempt to repeat the shot. However it was the powerplay that turned out to be the difference between the two teams in the end. While India had plundered 62 runs from their 5 overs, the West Indies could only manage 36 and lost 3 wickets in the process in what was a decisive phase of the match. With Bravo (19 from 16 balls) and Jerome Taylor (21 from 15) back in the hut, the Windies innings had slipped to 252 for 7 from 40 overs, needing a further 88 runs from 60 balls, an unlikely task with just 3 wickets in hand.

Some lacklustre bowling from India kept the home side in the contest as Ramdin and Bernard threw their bats around a bit. However the returning Ashish Nehra sealed the deal in the final overs picking up both batsmen to leave the West Indies 20 runs short of India's score in what had been a highly entertaining evening in Jamaica.

The West Indies will get a chance to square the series when the two sides meet again on Sunday right here at Kingston before heading over to St. Lucia for the final two games in this incredibly short ‘holiday' tour.

Mini Scorecard:
India 339/6 (50 overs, 6.78 rpo)
Yuvraj 131(102)        Bravo 2-66
Karthik 67(77)           Bernard 1-50 (8)

West Indies 319 all out (48.1 overs, 6.62 rpo)
Chanderpaul 63 (59)            Pathan 3-56 (8)
Sarwan 45 (42)                    Nehra 3-49 (7.1)

File Photograph: ICC T20 World Cup

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