Kingston, June 27 (Inditop.com)Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that his team was somewhat relaxed after taking seven wickets to allow the West Indies get too close for visitors’ comfort in the first One-day international cricket here Friday.
“Most of the guys thought that we have won the game when they were seven wickets down but it was a mistake and hopefully we won’t repeat that,” Dhoni said.
“It was much closer than we thought it would.”
Yuvraj Singh struck 131 in 102 balls to take India to 339. West Indies came close to chasing the target with contributions from skipper Chris Gayle (37)), Runako Morton (42), Ramnaresh Sarwan (45) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (63).
West Indies lost their seventh wicket in the 40th over and needed 88 from the final 10 overs. They scored 43 in the next five overs before losing David Bernard (19).
The home team needed 25 to win off the last three overs when Rudra Pratap Singh bowled Sulieman Benn for seven.
Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin kept the hopes alive, hitting 29 off 26 balls, before he was the last man to be dismissed.
Ashish Nehra, playing his comeback game, took the crucial wickets of Bernard and Ramdin.
“It was a gamble. We were wondering whether an off spinner should bowl that over or a pacer. Finally we chose a pacer as the ball was getting reverse swing,” Dhoni said.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle sounded happy with the effort of the team.
“We came close and the effort can’t be faulted for the way we went about it,” Gayle said.
“We batted well. Darren (Bravo), who was making debut, was impressive. Shiv (Chanderpaul) played a top innings. If we had won the toss we would have batted first because it is a flat track and the wicket seemed a bit dry.”
Dhoni and Gayle praised Yuvraj’s knock.
“We rely a lot on him. He gets big runs for us in the middle order,” Dhoni said.
“Once he sets in, you hope for a big score. That’s what he’s doing. Once he’s set in, he always gives us a good score with a very good strike rate.”
Gayle said: “He batted really well and set up a good innings for his team. On a small outfield and flat track it was difficult to contain him out there when he was on the go.”
“You have to give credit to the way Yuvraj batted. He started really slow but that goes to show the power of Yuvraj.”
