CELEBRATION TIME: The West Indies faced little difficulty in winning the match as Zimbabwe put up a pathetic show. — Photo: AFP

Ahmedabad: The West Indies surpassed its expectations in its opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy here at the Motera on Sunday.

It vanquished Zimbabwe, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara carting the bowling all over the park, and their terrific onslaught got their side past the paltry target of 85 in 86 balls.

Earlier, Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to bat, and offered no challenge to hit out at balls bowled at them and force the match to the level of a real skirmish.

All put together, Zimbabwe managed to muster 85 in a little over two hours. It was a most dismal and depressing demonstration of batting seen in a long time on a true deck that Lara said deserved a match of 100 overs duration. The regular fall of wickets rendered the power play situations hollow.

Lowest at the ground

Zimbabwe's total is the lowest ever here, 15 short of India's 100 against Richie Richardson's West Indies in 1993. Tafadzwa Mufambisi, the last Zimbabwe player to fly out of Harare and join the squad as an eleventh hour replacement for Vusimuzi Sibanda, did well to glide the ball wide of second slip for the first boundary off the second ball of the match by Jerome Taylor.

For a few moments it looked as though Utseya's team would prosper. But the West Indies comeback was swift, marked by superb bowling and smart work inside the ring.

Taylor impresses

Taylor was the first to impress. He beat the defensive and groping bat three times after being sent to the rope by Mufambisi. The right arm fast-medium bowler was sharp and accurate and found the gap just wide enough to hit the timber and restrict Hamilton Masakadza's occupancy in the middle to five balls.

Having dislodged Masakadza Taylor, in his opening burst of six overs, dismissed Mufambisi, who had showed some guts, courage and enterprise for a little over half-an-hour.

A nippy and climbing delivery directed at his body brought an abrupt end to his promising innings.

Lara revisiting Moetra after 13 years, deployed his forces to pressurise the Zimbabwe batsmen. He had two slips in the opening six balls from Taylor and reinforced it with a man at gully to make the most of a precision line and length attack from the Jamaican.

Taylor generated a fair amount of pace, thus compounding problems for the batsmen. Left hand seamer, Ian Bradshaw bowled eight overs on the trot and was responsible for the ejection of Chamunorwa Justice Chibhabha, the ball finding the front pad before taking the stumps with it.

Once the openers fell, the Zimbabwe innings hinged on the ability and nerves of Brendan Taylor and Stuart Matsikenyeri to take it forward. Brendan deftly picked a four off Bradshaw, but erred in calling a single after playing Bradshaw on the on side. Chanderpaul's direct hit caught Brendan short by a good distance.

Thereafter, Wavell Hinds ran out Harry Rinke. The Zimbabwe innings was now in a shambles, later boosted by Utseya's bold knock of 27, the highest by a Zimbabwe batsman.

Early finish

Shot out for 85 in 30.1 overs meant an early finish to the match and the West Indians, Man of the Match Gayle (dropped twice) and Lara, provided acceleration to romp home in style.

When asked if he was disappointed with the intensity of the opposition, Lara said: "we came here to win this game emphatically and we did that. The bowlers got five-six overs under their belt and performed well. We did well in the field too. It doesn't matter what the opposition was like, we went out and batted with purpose which was important.''

Lara also revealed that he asked Ramnaresh Sarwan if he could bat at No.3. "I told him that I could have a knock because I didn't play in the practice game. I just wanted to hit a few balls with the middle of the bat, and I was happy to do that.''

The turnout was less than 1,000 and Lara said it was quite understandable. "This is a very long tournament and just the first stage. People will come out when the more prominent teams arrive. Indians are great lovers of the game, and you have to remember that India is playing here later, so people might just be saving their rupee for that game.''

Zimbabwe skipper Utseya said: "we didn't apply ourselves. We tried to play too many shots early on and the shot selection was also poor. I expected to set a target of over 250. The morale and confidence of guys goes down with such defeats. We are capable of a better performance and we will try that against Sri Lanka.''

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