Kingston (Jamaica): Skipper Rahul Dravid donned the saviour’s role again as India survived a minor collapse in the top order to beat West Indies by five wickets in the rain-curtailed first one day international against West Indies.

Dravid’s 120-ball 105 was the decisive factor as India romped home with a ball to spare, after the West Indians put up a challenging target of 251 off 45 overs.

Though Dravid was caught by Taylor off Bravo when India needed 43 runs from 37 balls, Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina steered India to victory. This is India’s 17th successive win while chasing.

Kaif, who found form after a long time, struck the winning boundary. KAif (66) was also involved in a 123-run partnership with his skipper for the fourth wicket.

Earlier, Chris Gayle struck a century after Dravid won the toss and elected to field. Gayle scored 123 off 131 balls, which included 18 hits to the fence and two over it, but failed to get support from his team mates barring skipper Lara, the second highest scorer with 35 on board.

For India Ajit Agarkar took two for 38 while Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel took one each.

Irfan was wayward in his opening spell, leaving room for Gayle to unleash his prowess on the Indian seamers. Gayle put on 87 runs with his opening partner Runako Morton (23).

The first ten overs itself cost the Indians 74 runs, after Pathan began the attack with three wides and a couple of no balls.
Dravid was adjudged the man of the match.
Scoreboard

West Indies
C Gayle c Dravid b Agarkar 123
R Morton c wkpr Dhoni b Agarkar 23
R Sarwan lbw b Harbhajan Singh 2
B Lara c Kaif b Patel 35
S Chanderpaul c Sehwag b Pathan 18
M Samuels run out (Sehwag) 10
C Baugh not out 12
D Bravo not out 0
Extras (lb-15, w-7, nb-6) 28
Total (for 6 wkts, 45 overs) 251
Fall of wickets: 1-86, 2-94, 3-176, 4-222, 5-233, 6-248.

Bowling
Irfan Pathan 9-1-50-1
Munaf Patel 9-1-48-1,
Rudra Pratap Singh 7-0-45-0
Harbhajan Singh 9-2-33-1,
Ajit Agarkar 9-0-38-2
Sehwag 2-0-22-0

India
V Sehwag run out (Samuels) 22
R Dravid c Taylor b Bravo 105
I Pathan c Morton b Bradshaw 1
Y Singh c Samuels b Bradshaw 12
M Kaif not out 66
M Dhoni c Morton b Bravo 18
S Raina not out 7
Extras (lb-8, w-10, nb-5) 23
Total (for 5 wkts, 44.5 overs) 254
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-62, 3-86, 4-209, 5-233.

Bowling
Edwards 9-1-50-0
Taylor 9-1-56-0
Bradshaw 9-1-40-2
Bravo 8.5-0-50-2
Samuels 6-0-34-0
Gayle 3-0-16-0.