Marlon Samuels signalled his return to ODI cricket with a brilliantly crafted unbeaten century as West Indies put up a commanding 321 for six against India in the first cricket one-dayer here today.
The 33-year-old Samuels, who last played in an ODI for West Indies seven months back, equalled his career-best score of 126 en route his sixth century in this format, adding 165 runs for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin (61).
In the end, 23 runs came of the final two overs to help the Caribbeans reach a big score on a flat batting track.
Samuels' runs came off 116 balls with 11 fours and four sixes as he paced his innings to perfection reaching the milestone in 99 balls. He found an able ally in Ramdin, who also kept the momentum going with a 59-ball-61 that had five fours and two sixes. While Samuels' first 50 runs came off 61 balls, the next 50 came off in only 38 balls for the Jamaican, who now has two ODI tons against the Indians.
While Mohammed Shami had the best haul of four for 66 in nine overs, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar with figures of 0/38 in 10 overs, who had the decent figures among the bowlers.
Veteran leggie Amit Mishra (1/72) got a bit of hammering when he was bowling with the field restrictions during the middle overs.
West Indies upped the ante in between overs 31-40 which yielded them 89 runs when Mishra and other spinner Ravindra Jadeja (1/58) were operating in tandem.
Samuels was brilliant against the spinners as he lofted Mishra off successive deliveries over long-on and long-off for maximum. He completed his 50 with another six off Suresh Raina.
His 100 though came with a gentle tap for a single off Jadeja and then celebrated it with couple of boundaries off Shami.
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