India Run Away To Easy Win Over West Indies, Dravid MoM

West Indies did add 74 runs through their last two wickets but it wasn’t enough to deny India a 63-run win in the first Test match of the series at Kingston in Jamaica.

Resuming on their score from overnight of 131 for three, the West Indian side lost early wickets and were bowled out shortly after lunch to hand over the win. On a difficult pitch, where the need of the hour was to bat long and hard, West Indies had far too many starts but no-one to really go on and get a big enough one.

To be fair to the West Indies, the target of 326 was always going to test even the best of the batting line-ups. The deed had been done in the first innings itself, when they had conceded a lead of 73 runs – a behemoth on a track like this. Then, the superb Rahul Dravid knock of 112 took the match away from the West Indies. It was only a matter of time before West Indies capitulated to the loss, especially given the inexperience in their batting.

West Indies had already lost three wickets overnight and for most part of the first session they struggled. Darren Bravo shuffled more than he should have, towards the off-stump and had his stump castled while Shivnarine Chanderpaul was sucked into driving the ball straight to short-cover. Praveen Kumar was the successful bowler. Then, Carlton Baugh had batted well down the order in the first innings but on his birthday today, failed to tickle the scorers and West Indies had lost six wickets for 150.

Darren Sammy came out aggressively, smacked three sixes off three balls from Harbhajan Singh but captain MS Dhoni smartly took him out of the attack. The aggression stemmed, Amit Mishra did the rest by having him caught at short-cover. Brendan Nash struggled through his innings of nine before a scooter from Mishra caught him plumb in front and despite some hitting from Ravi Rampaul and Devendra Bishoo, West Indies were bowled out for 262, about 40 minutes after lunch.

Rahul Dravid was declared the man of the match for his century and 40 in the match and the Indians will now look to seal the series at Bridgetown in Barbados in the second Test from June 28.