England beat West Indies

London, July 1:

Three wickets for Stuart Broad helped England to a 79-run win in the first one-day international against the West Indies on Sunday.

Set 226 to win the West Indies lost four wickets in the first six overs before Broad snuffed out any chance of a recovery and finishing with figures of 3-20. West Indies were all out for 146 in 39.5 overs.

Broad’s effort and that of Plunkett (2-38) and Jimmy Anderson (2-23) cancelled out a superb spell of West Indian Fidel Edwards, who finished with 5-45. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (53 not out) and Dwayne Bravo (29) had steadied the West Indian ship slightly with a stand of 61 for the fifth wicket.

When Dwayne Smith got out, the West Indies were 93-7. Liam Plunkett and Anderson did the early damage with Plunkett removing the captain Chris Gayle (6). Anderson then removed Runako Morton and Marlon Samuels in the same over before running out Devon Smith. Chanderpaul received little support from his teammates apart from Bravo and Ravi Rampaul (24).

Edwards’ burst of four wickets in 13 balls after a one hour rain interruption had knocked the wind of England’s sails and helped to reduce them from 181-4 to 225 all out. Owais Shah made 42 and Ian Bell scored 56. Kevin Pietersen made 33 before slashing Bravo to point.