Where did India first win a one-dayer against the West Indies?
(24 May 2002)

Intuitively, one would think that India would have registered their first win over the West Indies on the subcontinent, in familiar conditions. But the victory came in the West Indies' own homeground of Albion, Berbice.

It was 29 March 1983 when India and the West Indies clashed in the second of three one-dayers during the 1983 series between the two sides. India had never beaten the West Indies in the shorter version of the game previously, and nobody expected the script to veer towards a different ending in this match either.

Lloyd won the toss and put the Indians in at a ground that had seen low scores from teams batting first on previous occasions.

In a match shortened to 47 overs, an uncharacteristically belligerent 90 off 117 balls from the little master Sunil Gavaskar at the top of the order saw India get off to a rollicking start. It was then the turn of the Indian captain Kapil Dev to rocket the Indians to a truly imposing score. His blazing 72 off 38 balls, with seven fours and a six, saw the tourists rattle up 282 for five. The West Indies were quite naturally shell-shocked, but they still had a mighty batting line-up to call upon.

A fine exhibition of seam bowling from Kapil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Sandhu, however, was to scupper their hopes of victory on the day. The great opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes were forced to make an early return to the pavilion. As for the middle order, with the exception of Viv Richards, who made 64, Sheik Bacchus, who made 52, and Jeff Dujon, who made an unbeaten 53, none of the others really fired. This meant that though the West Indies played out the 47 overs to reach 255 for nine, they were still losers by 27 runs. Their first win over the West Indies was a major fillip to the Indian team and portended their coming of age as a one-day team.

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