The heavens were not kind to the Men in Blue as the first of five ODIs at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain was washed out to heavy rains. India looked in command, batting first, when rain interrupted in the 40th over, and the covers were called in. India were 199 for 3 in the 39.2 overs, and what started as a light drizzle soon turned into heavy rain. India have been unlucky with the rain at this venue before – in their last tour of the West Indies, four of five days of the last Test match were abandoned when the outfield was not dry enough for play.
Coming off the Champions Trophy final loss against Pakistan, the Indian team were certainly looking for some redemption. West Indies, who had failed to even qualify for the tournament in England looked easy meat for the mighty Indians. The Indian captain Kohli lost the toss and was put to bat first, and the Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane made the most of their time on the field.
Rahane, who has been brought in as replacement for the rested Rohit Sharma, hit a fine half century and looked very comfortable against the Windies bowlers. Dhawan, who was in golden form in the Champions Trophy, missed out an 11th ODI ton by 13 runs as the pair put on 132 runs for the opening wicket in 25 overs. Rahane looked to be ready for a big one but fell to Alzarri Joseph’s slower ball, bringing in Kohli. Kohli looked rusty and was hit on the glove several times, but got going eventually to keep the scoreboard ticking. Dhawan was unlucky to miss out on a century when he fell to Devendra Bishoo in the 32nd over, and Yuvraj Singh soon followed him making just 4 off 14 balls. MS Dhoni had just arrived at the crease, when rain interrupted play first in the 38th over, and then again in the 40th over. The West Indies were set a revised target of 194 off 26 overs by the D/L method, but they never got a chance to take the field as play was finally called off at 0121 IST.