Evin Lewis steered the West Indies to a five-wicket one-day international victory over Ireland in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The hosts take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series courtesy of a comfortable win with more than 16 overs to spare as opener Lewis finished unbeaten on a run-a-ball 99.
Captain Andy Balbirnie was soon made to regret his call to bat first as the tourists slumped to 88 for six before being dismissed for 180.
Alzarri Joseph was the pick of the West Indian attack, claiming the scalps of openers Paul Stirling and Gareth Delany on his way to figures of four for 32. Lorcan Tucker top scored for Ireland with 31.
Lewis was the mainstay of the West Indies replay as wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end (Simranjit Singh took 2-44) but they still eased home with 100 balls to spare.
Lewis struck two sixes and 13 fours in his knock and just missed out on a third ODI century as the winning boundary dropped inches short of the ropes.
Match summary. pic.twitter.com/7Eo10XXHsY
— Cricket Ireland (@Irelandcricket) January 7, 2020
Skipper Balbirnie said afterwards: "When you win the toss and bat first, and you're all out for 180, you’re obviously below par. We are disappointed with our dismissals throughout, but we haven’t got long until the next game, so we’ve got to dust ourselves off, regroup and come out on Thursday all guns blazing.
"They bowled well, but I think we still have a lot of areas to work on with the bat. There’s no reason why we can’t turn it around and look to put in a much better performance in the next game."
The sides meet again on Thursday at 5.30pm Irish time
