West Indies 6-269 (Dwayne Bravo 87*, Lendl Simmons 65, Darren Sammy 61,Tim Bresnan 3-68) beat England 6-254 (Michael Lumb 106, Moeen Ali 44, Sunil Narine 2-36) by 15 runs.

Dwayne Bravo led his side from the front with an all round performance and defeated England by a narrow margin besides a superb ton from Michael Lumb on debut.

The Windies piled up 269 runs after losing six wickets in 50 overs and England was restricted to 254 with four wickets in hand.

Dwayne bravo (West Indies) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his excellent batting, bowling and captaincy.

The first One Day International of the three match series was played on Friday, February 28, 2014, at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua.

Michael Lumb - Centruy on debut
Michael Lumb – Centruy on debut

Earlier, Stuart Broad won the toss for England and put the hosts in to bat first. The decision looked perfect when the Caribbeans lost their four top order batsmen for 45 mere runs in 15.4 overs. The skipper of the home side, Dwayne Bravo and Lendl Simmons stopped the invasion of the English bowlers with determination. The latter was occupied with most of the scoring, reached his 14th ODI fifty in the 37th over and became the next victim at 153 for 65.

Darren Sammy walked in next while Bravo attained his 10th ODI half century in the process. The duo became violent and started attacking the rival bowlers while the first smashed his seventh ODI fifty on the 33rd ball with a big six. Sammy was gone on the final delivery of the 50th over for 61 and Dwayne Bravo secured his end for 87 as the Windies smashed 6-269.

Tim Bresnan was the most successful bowler with three wickets whereas Joe Root, James Tredwell and Moeen Ali shared one wicket each.

England started the chase in an impressive manner with their debutants, Michael Lumb and Moeen Ali. The pair was batting beautifully and enhanced the score to 77 in 14 overs while the latter was dropped at 36 in the coming over. Lumb registered his fifty in the 19th one, Moeen departed at 96 for 44 and the next batsman surrendered his wicket for just one.

Joe Root joined in with Lumb who was batting superbly, powered his maiden ODI hundred in the 35th over but was finally dismissed for 106 as the total touched 180. Root was the fifth batsman who went back to the pavilion at 205 for 37 and England was reeling at 6-211 in 43 overs. The visitors never recovered after that, went behind the clock and scored 6-254 in 50 overs.

Sunil Narine was the top wicket taker with two whereas Ravi Rampaul, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Dwayne Smith held one wicket each.

West Indies won the opening ODI with a margin of 15 runs and lead the series at 1-0.

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