West Indies flirted with disaster before coming away with a seven wicket triumph over India during yesterday?s opening 20/20 World Cricket Classic match at the National Sports Centre.

While the final result would suggest a Windies walkover, in all honesty the Caribbean team nearly choked in the final overs of the match with victory well in sight.

After opener Stuart Williams (66) was run out in the 17th over, number four bat Thelston Payne (seven) and Carlisle Best (26 not out) were left with what should have been a straightforward task of polishing off the remaining 19 runs off 18 balls for victory.

However, through a combination of tight bowling and fielding, the Indians managed to find the right line, plug the gaps in the field and reduce the run rate to a trickle to set up a dramatic finish.

Payne and Best scored 12 runs off 12 balls to take the Windies to the brink of victory.

But India were not done just yet.

Asked to score seven runs off the final six balls of the match, Payne was caught behind by wicketkeeper Chandu Pandit off Venkatesh Prasad?s first delivery. And when Best failed to score off the bowler?s third and fourth deliveries it began to appear as though India would pull what had earlier seemed unthinkable.

However, the former Barbados and West Indies Test batsman finally got it right, when it mattered most, smashing two fours off the last two balls of the match to bundle the Indians out of the tournament, and advance his team through to Saturday?s Plate Final.

?I thought we could have won it a lot easier today, but a win is a win and hopefully we learned something from this game,? commented West Indies manager and former Test all rounder John Shepherd.

?With 12 balls to get 12 runs we showed a little bit of inexperience and tried to smash fours when all we had to do was find the gaps.?

Prior to Best?s late heroics with the bat, openers Williams and Junior Murray (33) produced the tournament?s highest first-wicket stand of 85 runs in 14 overs, and second best overall.

Williams, dropped on 47, was in punishing mode, taking full advantage of any deliveries pitched short or wide of the stumps while his partner provided solid support at the opposite end.

Williams cracked ten fours off 51 balls during his top knock before he was run out by a full-blooded straight drive from the bat of Best that was deflected off the bowler?s hand onto the stumps.

Murray, who lived a charmed life having been put down twice in the field, hit three fours off 41 balls before he was caught at deep midwicket going for the big hit.

Best faced 19 balls and hit four fours during his unbeaten knock.

Prasad and Rajesh Chauhan each took one wicket for an Indian attack that lacked penetration.

Earlier, the West Indies ? led by a three-pronged seam bowling attack ? ripped through the Indian batting order with ease.

India openers Banerjee Subroto (five) and Bedade Atil (22) added 27 runs for the first wicket. But when Subroto was caught by Phil Simmons at midwicket pulling a short pitched Hendy Bryan delivery, the rot set in as Atil was dismissed by first change Colin Croft?s very first delivery in the next over.

India?s next five batsmen then fell for the addition of 50 runs as Croft, Bryan and the towering Joel Garner continued to have things all their way.

The only resistance the West Indies encountered came from middle order bat Chauhan (60 not out) who largely contributed to India posting a respectable total after losing wickets at regular intervals.

The Indians lost two wickets in the fourth, 12th and 20th overs and reached triple digits in the 17th over.

Chauhan whipped four fours and three sixes off only 48 balls while tailender Kuruvilla Abey stroked a brisk 22 (two sixes and a four) runs off 18 balls.

Garner, making his first appearance in the tournament, was the pick of the West Indies bowling with impressive figures of three for 17 off four overs backed up by Croft (two for 22) and Bryan (two for 26).