Chennai: Shimron Hetmyer struck a sparkling 139 off 106 balls as he dominated on a slow pitch, supported by an unbeaten 151-ball 102 from Shai Hope, to guide the visitors to an eight-wicket victory.
Sheldon Cottrell (2/46) ensured that captain Kieron Pollard did not regret his decision to bowl first as he sent first KL Rahul (6) on his way before claiming the big scalp of Virat Kohli for just four later in the same over, to have India reduced to 25/2 at the end of the seventh over.
India’s top order struggled to score freely, with Rohit Sharma clocking up 56 balls for his 36 before he mistimed a pull to mid-wicket off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph. That left the hosts 80/3 in the 19th over, but Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer put on 114 in 18.3 overs for the fourth wicket to put India on top. Iyer reached his fifty with a single in the 32nd over, taking 70 balls to reach the landmark. Pant completed a maiden ODI half-century in the following over from only 49 balls.
Iyer eventually departed for an 88-ball 70, in a similar fashion to Rohit, before Pant followed a few overs later, holing out to deep square leg for 71 from 69 balls. But Kedar Jadhav (40) ensured there was no let-up in pressure as he smashed the next ball for six. Along with Ravindra Jadeja (21) he kept the runs coming until both fell in successive balls in the 48th over.
India closed on 287/8, with Cottrell, Alzarri Joseph and Keemo Paul, all bagging two wickets each to play a part in restricting the hosts to under 300.
In reply the visitors also struggled up top, scoring just 36 runs in the Powerplay while losing Sunil Ambris who was pinned in front by Deepak Chahar. But while Shai Hope continued to struggle to time the ball, Shimron Hetmyer had no such troubles apart from a brief spell just before reaching fifty. Once he brought up his run a ball half-century though, the shackles were once again firmly off as he struck back-to-back sixes off Jadeja, before striking another boundary off each of the next four overs to take him into the nineties.
Again Hetmyer slowed as he approached the landmark, but he still took just 85 balls to bring up three figures. He mishit one downtown off Chahar’s bowling, but Shreyas Iyer at long-on spilled it to give him a reprieve. The left-hander then struck Jadeja for back-to-back sixes, the second of those going over the roof, to add to India’s agony.
Another pair of boundaries, off ODI debutant Shivam Dube, took the Guyana batsman surging past his previous ODI and List A high score of 127. But Mohammad Shami’s return brought the breakthrough for India, as Hetmyer was unable to clear the boundary fielder with his pull shot, departing for a magnificent 106-ball 139 – the first time he has faced 100 or more balls in an ODI innings.
Shai Hope remained immovable however, and he marched his way steadily onwards towards an eighth ODI hundred. He brought up the landmark in a manner uncharacteristic of the innings as a whole, striking a six followed by a four to bring up his ton from 149 balls.
A trio of boundaries from the bat of Nicholas Pooran (29*) in the next over took the Windies past their target and with it, the visitors secured a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second ODI will be played at Visakhapatnam’s ACA-VDCA Stadium on Wednesday, 18 December.
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