Brandon King scored his maiden ODI century to lead the West Indies cruised to a comprehensive seven-wicket win over the United Arab Emirates with 88 balls to spare in the opening match of their three-match series at Sharjah. Captain Shai Hope showered praised on his bowlers for the clinical execution in the lop-sided victory. “There was no hurry. They all bowled well, I can't single out too many, and I was happy with the execution,” he said. “Nice to see Hodge play in West Indies colours now and hopefully we can continue. I don't think there were devils in the surface but credit needs to be given to the bowlers.” He reserved special praise for the Player of the Match.

“King is an exceptional player and someone who I thought would've scored a lot more runs early in his career. But happy for him. He saw the opportunity to take the game forward and happy to see him get his first hundred today,” said Hope who collected the award for King, who was suffering from cramps. Set a target of 203, King scored a run-a-ball 112 to guide the West Indies to 206-3 from 35.2 overs in the day/night encounter. He was the last man out with the West Indies 10 runs shy of their target.

King shared in an opening stand of 48 with Johnson Charles that ended when Charles bowled for 24 while going for a big shot off Zahoor Khan delivery that cut back to hit his off stump for 24. A 91-run second wicket partnership followed between King and Shamarh Brooks, who rode his luck before he was eventually trapped lbw by Aayan Azfal Khan for 44. King, who was dropped on 52, then took the match away from the hosts with a 54-run partnership with Keacy Carty before being last man out, caught behind off the bowling of Rohan Mustafa.

King’s knock included 12 fours and four sixes, three of which came in the 34th over bowled by Karthik Meiyappan. The second of those sixes took King from 96 to his first ODI century. Captain Shai Hope replaced him and quickly ended proceedings with consecutive sixes off Karthik Meiyappan to end on 13 not out from just four balls. Carty was on seven from 19 balls when the match ended in the 36th over. UAE won the toss and chose to bat and were restricted to 202 all out in 47.1 overs. Ali Naseer scored a useful 58 from 52 balls and Vriitya Aravind, a contrasting 40 from 77 balls. Asif Khan also contributed 27 against the West Indies attack led by Keemo Paul, who took 3-34. Dominic Drakes took 2-29, Yanic Cariah weighed in with 2-26 and Odean Smith 2-40.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP