Guyana, March 21:

England won the opening one-day international (ODI) by one run under the Duckworth-Lewis method on Friday, following a horrible mathematical miscalculation by West Indies coach John Dyson.

Paul Collingwood (67) and Owais Shah (62) had hit half-centuries to help England set West Indies 271 for victory. But the match was winding down to a thrilling finish in fading light, when Stuart Broad trapped Denesh Ramdin leg before wicket to leave West Indies on 244-7 from 46.2 overs and put England ahead on the D/L chart.

England captain Andrew Strauss knew that he was ahead, but Dyson misread the numbers and called-in his batsmen with West Indies two behind the required victory target. Dyson consulted match referee Javagal Srinath to confirm his fears that he had misread the figures and handed the tourists a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Strauss and his teammates were beaming from ear to ear following the error from the West Indies coach who had based his calculations on six wickets lost. Lendl Simmons led the West Indies fight with 62 and Ramnaresh Sarwan made 57. They added 125 for the second wicket to keep West Indies in the game.

When they departed in the space of 21 balls, with West Indies on 152-3, Shivnarine Chanderpaul blitzed 46 and Kieron Pollard got 42 to get the hosts moving again. But they were two of four wickets England claimed in the space of 34 balls that tilted the game in the tourists’ favour and put the pressure on Dyson. Broad finished with 3-41 and James Anderson took 2-39 for England.