Saurav Ganguly and Toronto must be made for each other. The acting Indian captain won the man of the match award for the sixth time in a one-day international at Toronto yesterday as India breezed to an eight-wicket victory in the first of three matches against the West Indies making up the first half of the Toronto Cricket Festival. Both teams had been on Canadian soil for barely a day after finishing their Singapore encounter on Wednesday night.

Saurav Ganguly won the toss and put West Indies in to bat. The Indian team played Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Jacob Martin instead of batsmen Vinod Kambli and Amay Khurasiya. For the West Indies, Chris Gayle, Corey Collymore and Adrian Griffith came into the side.

Along with Sherwin Campbell, Griffith opened the batting, but was dismissed by Mohanty when he dragged a ball straight back onto his middle-stump. Shivnarine Chanderpaul came in at the fall of Griffiths' wicket and started cautiously against Prasad and Mohanty who were extracting some late swing. Chanderpaul was eventually stumped by Nikhil Chopra for 16 in the sixteenth over, West Indies 43 for 2.

Chris Gayle scored 1 on his ODI debut before Brian Lara came to the crease. Lara's stay ended when he attempted to pull Robin Singh out of the ground and ended up top-edging the ball. The ball rocketed up to mid-on and Hrishikesh Kanitkar held the catch comfortably. Lara had scored 2 off 7 balls. At the end of the 23rd over West Indies were struggling at 59 for 4.

Ricardo Powell came in to replace Brian Lara and Ganguly brought on Mohanty to counter the Jamaican sensation. Powell struggled to get to the pitch of the ball and swung lazily outside the off-stump. Powell had destroyed the Indians the last time the two teams met, but looked shaky to begin with.

Campbell, meanwhile, brought up his fifty off 81 balls by playing a Prasad delivery to thirdman. Powell attempted a massive pull to a ball well outside off-stump and missed the ball completely. Prasad followed that delivery up with one of similar length on the leg-stump. A few seconds later a volunteer was searching for the ball outside the ground. A trademark Ricardo Powell pull had sent the ball sailing past the ropes, the stands and even the edge of the ground.

In the 31st over, Powell continued to treat the bowling with contempt and thrashed Robin Singh over long-on for four. Off the very next ball, Powell attempted to carve the ball over extra-cover and ended up hitting the ball very high in the air to the off-side boundary. Jacob Martin running in from the fence took a good catch to dismiss Powell for 37 off 34 balls.

Jacobs batted sensibly and pushed the ball into the gaps to pick up easy singles. Campbell looked to be getting settled when he was dismissed in bizarre fashion. Campbell went down the wicket to Sunil Joshi and the ball squeezed past him and trickled towards the wicketkeeper. MSK Prasad was alert and snatched the ball from the ground and broke the wickets. Campbell's innings of 62 off 95 balls was ended by a good bit of wicketkeeping by Prasad. Joshi had his first wicket and West Indies were 135 for 6.

Only 28 runs were scored after the departure of Campbell, the West Indies dismissed for 163 after 46.2 overs. Robin Singh took 3/33 from his ten overs, while Nikhil Chopra gave up just seventeen runs in his ten, for the wickets of Chanderpaul and Jacobs.

The Indians came out to bat chasing a smallish total of 164 for victory. In a surprise move MSK Prasad accompanied Sadagopan Ramesh to the centre. Corey Collymore had the first scalp of his one-day international career when Prasad drove uppishly at a full delivery outside off-stump. The ball slid off the face to Griffith at point. Prasad made 24.

Courtney Walsh gave new batsman Dravid no room to play his shots. Varying his length effectively, Walsh kept Dravid quiet. In the 16th over Walsh bowled Dravid a steepler of a delivery that was absolutely impossible to play. All Dravid could do was edge the ball to the wicketkeeper. Dravid had made 5 off 14 balls.

Captain Ganguly came to the crease, and both he and Ramesh had a lot of difficulty playing Walsh. Ramesh especially could not deal with the short ball very well. Walsh dug the ball in short and got good bounce of the wicket. Ramesh took his eyes off a sharply rising delivery and was hit on the forearm. Runs started to flow more freely once Walsh (1/20 from seven overs) was spelled from the attack.

As the 31st over began, India were cruising towards an easy victory. Ganguly and Ramesh made no effort to finish the match in a hurry and looked to push the scoring on in a leisurely fashion. While Ganguly played a few aggressive shots, Ramesh crept back into his shell. The West Indians on the other hand seemed to help India by bowling far too many no balls. In the 37th over Ganguly broke the monotony by coming down the wicket to Gayle and hitting him cleanly through the line for six. Off the next ball Ganguly brought up his half century. Ganguly's fifty came off 68 balls. Soon after Ramesh posted his fifty, off 92 balls.

Ricardo Powell came on to bowl the 38th over but after only 3 balls as Ganguly knocked off the 6 runs required for victory. India made the required runs in 38.3 overs with 8 wickets to spare.