India seal narrow win in Jamaica

First one-day international, Jamaica:
India 339-6 (50 overs) beat West Indies 319 all out (48.1 overs) by 20 runs
Match scorecard

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Yuvraj celebrates after reaching his century at Sabina Park

India claimed a 20-run win over the West Indies in a tense first one-day international in Jamaica on Friday.

Batting first, India posted a total of 339-6, thanks largely to 131 off 102 balls from Yuvraj Singh, with Dinesh Karthik (67) adding useful early runs.

In reply, Chris Gayle, Runako Morton and Ramnaresh Sarwan all got good starts but failed to pass 50.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (67) gave hope but wickets fell regularly and the home side were all out with 11 balls to go.

It was a much-needed victory for India, who were widely criticised by their media and supporters for failing to reach the semi-finals of the Super Eights in the ICC World Twenty20.

Yuvraj smashed a pair of sixes off spinner Gayle and another off slow left-armer Sulieman Benn.

The powerful left-hander raced from 84 to 114 in the space of two overs, then fired successive sixes off paceman Jerome Taylor before he was the first of two wickets in two balls for Dwayne Bravo.

After the solid opening partnership, Sarwan hit three sixes, including a delightful straight drive off Yuvraj.

He shared a fifty stand with his trusty Guyanese middle-order partner Shivnarine Chanderpaul, but a run-out spelled the beginning of the end.

Chanderpaul holed out to deep midwicket in the 36th over but there was a brief revival from 250-7, before the Windies were all out at the beginning of the penultimate over.

India skipper Mahendra Dhoni paid tribute to Yuvraj and enthused: "He has been brilliant in the last couple of years. He has evolved as a batsman.

606: DEBATE Since Dhoni has taken charge of the Indian ODI team, the batting has been top notch 606AllRounder

"We have been relying a lot on him when it comes to the middle-order batting and he has proved himself. Every time we need him, he is there to score those runs.

"Most of the guys thought we had won the game when they were seven down. That's the mistake we committed, hopefully we won't commit it again."

To compound matters for the Windies, they were fined for a slow over-rate, after being deemed two overs short, Gayle losing 20% of his match fee and his colleagues 10%.

The second match of the four-game series takes place at the same venue on Sunday.