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Interruption affected team's momentum: Hooper

For West Indies skipper Carl Hooper there could not have been a more fascinating start to the one-day series against India. But the Guyanese admitted the break in the game at a crucial stage following crowd trouble had threatened to spoil his team's chances of victory.

"The break did not help at all. The interruption broke the momentum," Hooper said, after the West Indies snatched a thrilling four-wicket victory off the last ball in the first of the seven-match one-day series in Jamshedpur on Wednesday.

"But the boys batted brilliantly; total credit to them. It was good to see (Ramnaresh) Sarwan knock off the winning runs in the end," he added.

The West Indies skipper said since the "outfield was fast and the ground small and also teams have had big successful run chases here, we knew if we played well we could do it".

He, however, conceded that his side's bowling could have been tighter.

"We gave away 20-30 runs more to the Indians. We could have bowled and fielded better."

On the crowd trouble that almost threatened the match to be abandoned, he said, "I have experienced crowd trouble before in India. But I am a bit disappointed that such a thing has recurred this time."

Having slammed the pitch on Tuesday, he conceded that "it played better than it looked".

India skipper Sourav Ganguly tried to be positive in defeat, saying the team "fought pretty well to stay in the game".

"We batted well. I thought 283 was a winning total but we could not defend it," he said.

Ganguly felt the team lacked in the bowling department.

"The track supported spin bowling but our spinners did not bowl well."

He, however, said there is still lot of cricket to be played in the series and his team would definitely come back.

Ganguly was also quick to jump to the defence of debutant J P Yadav, who was out for a duck, gave away 22 runs from four overs and dropped a catch off his own bowling, saying: "He did not get adequate opportunities to prove his class in the game."

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