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International cricket’s newest venue served up an appetising pitch on which batsmen feasted yesterday.

Against the backdrop of Singapore’s skyscrapers, in sweltering 32 degrees heat, 16 sixes sailed beyond the boundary at the Kallang ground to add to 32 fours as the West Indies overhauled Zimbabwe’s 244 for nine off their 50 overs with 6.2 overs to spare.

Zimbabwean captain Alistair Campbell, 80 off 127 balls, set the tone with three sixes off the overused spinners, Nehemiah Perry and Jimmy Adams, in a partnership of 114 for the fourth wicket with fellow left-hander, Andy Flower, who lifted one himself in 89 off 99 balls.

They resurrected the innings from 38 for three in the 14th over and guided it to respectability. Towards the end, Stuart Carlisle added another six, off Adams, to the tally but it was obvious in such conditions that 300, rather than 250, was par.

The West Indies’ response was immediate and violent.

Ridley Jacobs thumped his first ball back over Neil Johnson's head to the sightscreen for four and proceeded to hit leg-side sixes off the pacy Henry Olonga, leg-spinner Paul Strang and medium-pacer Craig Evans in his run-a-ball 47.

Sherwin Campbell was in equally devastating mood in an opening stand of 114 in 18.3 overs that virtually settled the outcome. His share was 63 off 74 balls with seven fours.

West Indies captain Brian Lara arrived to the chants of his name from the hundreds of schoolboys in the ground and treated them to a dazzling, if brief, exhibition of his genius.

His 48 from 44 balls included four sixes, struck with the nonchalance of a practice session. The most breathtaking was off the enthusiastic, but erratic, Olonga who came charging in off 30 paces only for Lara to send the ball sailing back into the black sightscreen with the full flow of the bat.

But the best was yet to come. Once Lara’s interlude ended with a top-edged catch to point off Strang, Ricardo Powell entered to outdo even his illustrious captain.

Another 69 were required when he faced his first ball. By the time he despatched his 36th, and last, for his fourth six to formalise the result he had accumulated 51 of them.

Powell’s third and fourth scoring strokes were pulls off short leg-breaks from Strang.

When Olonga was brought back, he lifted his first two balls over mid-on for fours. There were two other fours with wristy flicks through square-leg and he rounded off the match in the grand manner, twice putting the tall fast bowler Andy Blignaut out of the ground off successive balls.

It was the perfect end to a perfect day for Powell whose speed, athleticism and throwing had been one of the features of the West Indies performance in the field.

The fast bowlers were all among the wickets with King and Hendy Bryan claiming three each. Walsh was Walsh, as his 10-4-31-1 return verifies, and Dillon was accurate and consistent.

He started Zimbabwe’s early problems by removing the left-handed opener Johnson, the World Cup star, with his third ball to one of the four catches that helped Jacobs win the Man of the Match award.

India, the West Indies’ next opponents on Sunday, will be much tougher than Zimbabwe.

For the moment, Lara and his men can savour a happy result.