KOCHI (India): West Indies put behind an acrimonious pay dispute with their cricket board to spank top-ranked India by a huge margin of 124 runs in the first one-day International here on Wednesday.

The visitors, inspired by a brilliant century from Marlon Samuels, took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

The West Indies, who were on the verge of boycotting the match, rode on Samuels’ career-best equalling 126 not out to post 321 for six and then shot out the Indians for 197 in 41 overs in a rather one-sided contest at the Nehru Stadium.

Samuels, who slammed 11 boundaries and four sixes during his 116-ball sixth ODI ton, shared a record fourth-wicket partnership of 165 with Denesh Ramdin. The wicket-keeper/batsman was one of the four wickets for Mohammed Shami after having struck five fours and two sixes in a 59-ball 61.

Paceman Shami finished with four wickets for 66 runs in nine overs.

India paid the price for some mediocre bowling and shoddy batting as they were outplayed by the crisis-hit touring side in all departments of the game to suffer a heavy defeat.

Indian bowlers gave away too many runs at the second part of West Indies innings to allow the visitors pile up a big total after being put into bat and then the much-vaunted batsmen, except for opener Shikhar Dhawan, failed to fire on a batting pitch.

Most of Indian batsmen were out on poor shot selection and they could not stitch any substantial partnership in the face of some tight bowling by the visiting bowlers, the highest being the 49 in 8.4 overs for the opening wicket between Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane (24). Dhawan’s scratchy 68 came from 92 balls with the help of nine fours.

Ravindra Jadeja (33 not out) was the other Indian batsman who scored more than 20 runs.

West Indies, even without their mystery spinner Sunil Narine, could tie down the top Indian batsmen who failed to get the runs when required.

Chasing a huge target of 322 for a win, India could not get to a good start as Rahane was run out in a bizarre mixed-up in the ninth over with just 49 on board.

Rahane tapped the length ball off Ravi Rampaul on the pads between short fine leg and square leg and after taking the first run quickly, he wanted a second and continued to run hard. But, Dhawan went back after taking a step and both found themselves at the keeper’s end and Rahane had to go.

Virat Kohli’s horrible run of low scores that began during the preceding series in England continued when he was caught in the slips for two.

India’s hopes sunk further when the in-form Suresh Raina was dismissed for a second-ball duck.

The second one-dayer will be played on Friday at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.

ScoreboardWEST INDIES:

D.R. Smith b Jadeja 46D.J. Bravo c Dhawan b Shami 17D.M. Bravo c Dhawan b Mishra 28M.N. Samuels not out 126D. Ramdin c Jadeja b Shami 61K.A. Pollard b Shami 2A.D. Russell c Kohli b Shami 1D.J.G. Sammy not out 10

EXTRAS (B-7, LB-5, W-17, NB-1) 30

TOTAL (for six wkts, 50 overs) 321

FALL OF WKTS: 1-34, 2-98, 3-120, 4-285, 5-296, 6-298.

DID NOT BAT: S.J. Benn, R. Rampaul, J.E. Taylor.

BOWLING: Kumar 10-1-38-0 (1w); Sharma 9-0-61-0 (1w); Mohammed Shami 9-1-66-4 (1nb, 3w); Jadeja 10-0-58-1 (2w); Mishra 10-0-72-1 (1w); Raina 2-0-14-0.

INDIA:

A.M. Rahane run out 24S. Dhawan b Samuels 68 V. Kohli c Sammy b Taylor 2A.T. Rayudu c Benn b Russell 13S.K. Raina b D.J. Bravo 0M.S. Dhoni b Sammy 8R.A. Jadeja not out 33 B. Kumar c Sammy b Samuels 2A. Mishra lbw b D.J. Bravo 5 M.M. Sharma c Taylor b Rampaul 8Mohammed Shami b Rampaul 19

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-14) 15

TOTAL (all out, 41 overs) 197

FALL OF WKTS: 1-49, 2-55, 3-82, 4-83, 5-114, 6-134, 7-138, 8-146, 9-155.

BOWLING: Rampaul 8-0-48-2 (2w); Taylor 10-1-50-1 (2w); D.J. Bravo 6-0-28-2 (5w); Russell 4-0-21-1 (3w); Benn 5-0-16-0; Sammy 5-0-23-1; Samuels 3-0-10-2.

RESULT: West Indies won by 124 runs.

UMPIRES: S. Ravi (India) and I.J. Gould (England).

TV UMPIRE: C. Shamsuddin (India).

MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Marlon Samuels.

NEXT MATCH: Delhi, Saturday.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014