(Reuters) – Australia spinner Xavier Doherty took four wickets as West Indies collapsed to a 64-run defeat in the first one-day international in Kingstown, St Vincent today.
It was a familiar story of batting failure for the Caribbean side as they kicked off the series, which includes five ODIs and three tests, in disappointing fashion.
Australia were restricted to 204 in their allotted 50 overs with opener Dave Warner striking 40 from 55 balls and George Bailey falling two short of a half-century on his debut.
Dwayne Bravo was the most effective of the West Indies bowlers, picking up three for 58, while Kemar Roach’s pace and Marlon Samuels’ off-spin also helped pin down the tourists on a slow track.
West Indies made a decent start to taking on what was an achievable target with Samuels (35) and Dwayne Bravo (32) getting amongst the runs but when the latter went, bowled by Daniel Christian, the floodgates opened.
Six wickets were lost for just seven runs and only a last-wicket effort from skipper Darren Sammy (35) offered any kind of resistance at the Arnos Vale Ground.
Doherty will take the plaudits for his fine spell of slow left-arm bowling but the Australian bowlers were helped by some awful shot selection from the hosts.
The second match of the series is on Sunday, also in St Vincent.
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