Sooner or later, the thrill of the chase fades. When it happened to Giacomo Casanova in his late 50s, he retreated to a castle in Bohemia to write his colourful memoirs. For India, the fixation with the chase was put into sharp focus after a resounding defeat today. No memoirs for them though, just a hasty trip to the drawing board with the grains fast disappearing down the World Cup sand-timer. Not that many of them will ever forget the sheer magnificence of Marlon Samuels's strokeplay today. The old coaching manuals have always waxed eloquent about the virtues of playing straight and never was that better illustrated than this morning when Samuels took the match a mile away from India in the space of a heady 11 overs. Technically sound – you have to be to take a fifty off Glenn McGrath in your first tour – he got into position early and struck the ball with the refreshing abandon that typified the golden generation of Richards-Lloyd-Greenidge.

It's easy to get carried away on the basis of one innings, or even two. But if the Test match hundred at Eden Gardens and this 75-ball 108 are any indication, Samuels has every chance - along with today's partner-in-mayhem, Ramnaresh Sarwan – of being West Indies' next batting great.

And if that innings wasn't enough to make Richards smile up in the players' enclosure, there was a tornado-in-a-beehive spell from Jermaine Lawson that left the Indian innings with more holes than a colander. His radar needs a lot of work but sheer pace makes him a potential matchwinner – a West Indian answer to Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee. No matter how placid the pitch, a bowler like that can trouble the best, especially with the steepling bounce he generates. Carl Hooper would be well advised to leave him be for the moment. An economical ten-over spell doesn't necessarily win you matches, while a spell of four for 50 or 60-odd invariably does. How India must wish one of their pacemen could do the same.

There was little for India to take out of this match, or series. But it would be churlish to pass judgement on a team that was missing its only real world-class quick bowler and its best batsman. At least, Murali Kartik excelling in three of four outings gives them some scope for experimentation in the spin department. Other than that, Dinesh Mongia and VVS Laxman, despite the runs he scored, were disappointing.

The dynamics of one-day cricket makes it essential that your one-drop batsman can rotate the strike effectively and hit cleanly over the top when required in the first 15 overs. Running between wickets has never been Laxman's strongest suit and clearing the infield doesn't come naturally to him either. It's a pity India missed out on an opportunity to experiment with Kaif and Yuvraj in that position, especially with Tendulkar absent.

This Sunday though, even a full-strength Indian team would have been hard-pressed to contain a West Indies side propelled by irrepressible youth. Samuels waved a red handkerchief after getting to his hundred, a present from Steve Waugh after the tour of Australia. Some of the obituaries for West Indian cricket may have been premature. After all, if Waugh reckons the boy will go on to be something special, who are we to argue?

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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