Chase, Hope help Windies start with a win

Having won the toss, Windies skipper Keiron Pollard opted to bowl first after his side lost the warm-up match earlier where they had batted first.

Afghanistan lost the opening pair of Hazratullah Zazai and Javed Ahmadi early in the innings before Rahmat Shah and Wicket-keeper batsman Ikram Alikhil stabilized the innings relatively with a partnership of 111 runs for the third wicket. The partnership was followed by quick wickets of Alikhil, who lost his wicket for 58, and Najibullah Zadran in the 27^th over of the innings as the Windies came back strongly. Rahmat Shah top-scored with 61 runs before losing his wicket to Roston Chase in the 33^rd over. Asghar Afghan scored 35 runs as well before Afghanistan were all out for 194 in the 46^th over.

In response, West Indies also had a nervous start as Evan Lewis and Shemron Hetmyer were back to the pavilion for 7 and 3 runs respectively within the first 8 overs. However, a brilliant match-winning partnership of 163 runs between Roston Chase and Shai Hope took their team home in 46.3 overs as the West Indies took a lead of 1-0 in the three-match Azizi Bank ODI Cup.

Man of the Match, Roston Chase fell just 6 runs short of a fantastic century while Hope remained unbeaten on 77.  

The second ODI of the series will be played on Saturday, 9^th November at the same venue.