Skipper Rahul Dravid definitely walked away with the honours for having played a captain's knock with all authentic, copy-book shots, and holding the team to together.
Dravid displayed all skills of a confident skipper, anchored the innings and did not get desperate to put runs on board despite losing Yuvraj early on.
The way Yuvraj lost his wicket could have easily brought down the confidence of the team.
But Dravid with all his gritty character and textbook techniques, kept the momentum going and made sure the run rate never got out of hand.
His knock of 105 can be easily described as a very mature innings, and no wonder he's called the Cool Wall of Cricket.
What worked in his favour was the fact that he was extremely confident and knew India could chase the total. That's what mattered.
Dravid has taken over the responsibility of the skipper with much ease. He can open an innings masterfully, can bat well down the lineup and can anchor the team during tough times.
The ease with which he played all kinds of shots all over the wicket in the first ODI clearly left the Windies bowlers wondering what line and length to bowl to him.
Mohammad Kaif, too, deserves a special mention here. He came back well from a bad phase with his all-important knock of 66, and I just hope he keeps things go well with him.
Indian bowling was equally amazing. Harbhajan and Agarkar were brilliant with their line and length and Agarkar's bowling experience was on full display.
West Indies made a cracker of a start and Chris Gayle was clearly their star. He scintillated with his 123 and added a zing to the first innings with brilliant square-cuts and that one-handed sixer.
However, Windies could not really capitalise on the early advantage. They kind of lost momentum in the last 10 overs where the batsmen managed just about six runs an over, when they actually could have managed 15.
Windies could have been more comfortable had they put up those extra 20 to 30 runs. But apart from Gayle's blitzkrieg, no one really managed to give Windies innings the required momentum.
Even Brain Lara, despite an initial scare, did not quite get going.
Now India riding high on this victory would look to repeat their performance in the second ODI as well.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishcricket.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:May 19, 2006, 10:23 ISTlast updated:May 19, 2006, 10:23 IST
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India's victory against the West Indies in the nail-biting one-dayer was certainly a well-deserved one.
Skipper Rahul Dravid definitely walked away with the honours for having played a captain's knock with all authentic, copy-book shots, and holding the team to together.
Dravid displayed all skills of a confident skipper, anchored the innings and did not get desperate to put runs on board despite losing Yuvraj early on.
The way Yuvraj lost his wicket could have easily brought down the confidence of the team.
But Dravid with all his gritty character and textbook techniques, kept the momentum going and made sure the run rate never got out of hand.
His knock of 105 can be easily described as a very mature innings, and no wonder he's called the Cool Wall of Cricket.
What worked in his favour was the fact that he was extremely confident and knew India could chase the total. That's what mattered.
Dravid has taken over the responsibility of the skipper with much ease. He can open an innings masterfully, can bat well down the lineup and can anchor the team during tough times.
The ease with which he played all kinds of shots all over the wicket in the first ODI clearly left the Windies bowlers wondering what line and length to bowl to him.
Mohammad Kaif, too, deserves a special mention here. He came back well from a bad phase with his all-important knock of 66, and I just hope he keeps things go well with him.
Indian bowling was equally amazing. Harbhajan and Agarkar were brilliant with their line and length and Agarkar's bowling experience was on full display.
West Indies made a cracker of a start and Chris Gayle was clearly their star. He scintillated with his 123 and added a zing to the first innings with brilliant square-cuts and that one-handed sixer.
However, Windies could not really capitalise on the early advantage. They kind of lost momentum in the last 10 overs where the batsmen managed just about six runs an over, when they actually could have managed 15.
Windies could have been more comfortable had they put up those extra 20 to 30 runs. But apart from Gayle's blitzkrieg, no one really managed to give Windies innings the required momentum.
Even Brain Lara, despite an initial scare, did not quite get going.
Now India riding high on this victory would look to repeat their performance in the second ODI as well.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishcricket.com)
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