Smith, Powell lay platform for four-wicket win
It was a far from smooth performance from West Indies, but they held themselves together well enough with bat and ball to overcome Ireland by four wickets at Sabina Park. After restricting the visitors to 202, contrasting half-centuries from Dwayne Smith and Kieran Powell set the base in the chase as West Indies finished with more than 13 overs to spare
Smith, who was only drafted in for this match and for the games to follow against England, after Chris Gayle was ruled out with a back problem, did a passable impression of the man he was replacing by clubbing 55 off 53 balls in an opening stand of 100 with Powell. Playing his first ODI since December 2012, Smith hit the first two deliveries of the innings for four and later added three sixes before getting an outside edge off Stuart Thompson.
Ireland took the chance to bring themselves back into the contest by removing Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo as West Indies lost 3 for 8, but the captain Dwayne Bravo quelled their excitement with a boundary-filled 35 while Powell played at his own pace to bring up a controlled half-century from 72 balls.
Dwayne Bravo was showing the form that brought him 217 runs in the one-day series against New Zealand last month – including an 81-ball 106 in the final match in Hamilton – but just when he was seemingly taking West Indies to their target in a hurry he was superbly caught on the cover boundary.
Neither could Powell finish the job, being stumped off Paul Stirling, but the flying start provided by the openers meant West Indies were not under any run-rate pressure and although Denesh Ramdin went lbw, Marlon Samuels finished the game with a flurry of boundaries. The spinners, George Dockrell and Paul Stirling, tried their best to haul in the innings and did enough to suggest Ireland had not been too far away from a very competitive total.
Summarized scores: West Indies 205 for 6 (Powell 57, Smith 55) beat Ireland 202 (Wilson 62, Holder 3-34, Dwayne Bravo 3-36) by four wickets