NDTV Correspondent

Kingston, May 19: Chasing 252 to win, India have defeated West Indies by five wickets in the first one-day international at Sabina Park in Kingston on Thursday.

In what can be called an absolute cliffhanger of sorts, the Men in Blue achieved the target in the penultimate ball of the match.

With this win, India have taken a 1-0 lead in the five match series.

Mohammad Kaif played one of the best knocks of his career to steer India to victory.

Setting the stage

The opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid set the tone for the Indian innings, putting on 56 runs for the first wicket.

Sehwag was the first to go, run out by Ian Bradshaw for 22 runs. The move to promote Irfan Pathan backfired as he was caught by Runako Morton off Ian Bradshaw's bowling for just one.

Yuvraj Singh was sent back to the pavilion after he was caught by Marlon Samuels for 12.

Dravid played a captain's knock of 105 before he was caught by Jerome Taylor off Dwayne Bravo's bowling.

It was Wall's 12th one-day international ton. Dravid was named Man of the Match for his brilliant knock.

Wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni was his usual self, scoring 18 off 11 balls. However, he couldn't stay at the wicket for long and was caught by Morton off Bravo's bowling.

Gayle leads charge

Buoyed by a brilliant hundred from opener Chris Gayle, West Indies made a competitive 251 for six in the allotted 50 overs.

The in-form Gayle hit his 12th ODI hundred of his career and the fourth against India.

Gayle never showed any signs of slowing down and took just 116 balls for his ton.

Scintillating knock

He was finally caught by Dravid of Ajit Agarkar's bowling for 123. Gayle's scintillating knock consisted of 18 fours and two sixes.

After a brilliant start, West Indies first lost the wicket of Morton for 23 after the opener edged a catch to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni off Ajit Agarkar's bowling.

He put on 87 runs for the first wicket with Gayle.

Ramnaresh Sarwan had a disappointing start as he was trapped leg before wicket for just two runs of a Harbhajan Singh delivery.

Munaf Patel picked up his first wicket of the match when he had West Indies captain Brian Lara caught by Mohammad Kaif for 35. 

Shivnarine Chanderpaul made a quickfire 18 off 27 balls. He was brilliantly caught by Virender Sehwag.

The Nawab of Najafgarh then ran out Marlon Samuels. The talented Carlton Baugh then swung Pathan over midwicket for a stunning six to make sure the hosts crossed the 250 mark.

Agarkar was the pick of the bowlers for India with two for 38 while Harbhajan Singh returned an economical 1-33.

The visitors were hoping for a brisk start from Irfan Pathan but the first over proved to be an expensive with 14 runs coming off it.

Delayed start

Earlier, India won the toss and elected to field. The start of the match was delayed by an hour due to overnight rains and the game consequently reduced to 45 overs a side contest.

Dravid opted for a four-man pace attack after injuries to off-spinner Ramesh Powar and seamer S Sreesanth.

Other players who were excluded were opener Robin Uthappa and Venugopala Rao.

The hosts left out Corey Colleymore, Dave Mohammad and Dwayne Smith from the playing XI.