>Dwayne Bravo (left) of the West Indies celebrates with Darren Sammy after taking the catch to dismiss England's Alistair Cook during their Twenty20 international cricket match at the Oval, London, yesterday. - AP

LONDON, (Reuters)

West Indies took advantage of some wayward England bowling yesterday to win the first of two Twenty20 internationals scheduled on consecutive days at The Oval.

Devon Smith (61 from 34 balls) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (41 from 26) shared a second-wicket partnership of 84 and Marlon Samuels struck an exuberant 51 from 26 to take West Indies to a daunting 208 for eight.

England's new limited overs captain, Paul Collingwood, threatened to take his team to an unlikely victory after they had been reduced to 101 for six from 12.2 overs.

Collingwood smashed 80 from 41 balls but the asking rate was too high and England eventually fell 16 runs short of their target with three wickets in hand.

The win was a welcome relief for the tourists, who lost the four-Test series 3-0, and a boost for their limited-overs captain Chris Gayle.

Gayle has refused to apologise to the West Indies Cricket Board after criticising it for the late arrival of three players for the one-day series.

After the game, Gayle revealed it had been Dwayne Bravo's decision to bowl the critical last over.

Bravo was not expected to bowl in the match because of a slight injury but bowled the final over to earn West Indies a 15-run win at the Oval.

"I was going to bowl the second-to-last over but I had a discussion with (Dwayne) Bravo and (Ravi) Rampaul and Rampaul said he can pull it back a bit and we will decide who is going to bowl the last over, whether it will be me or Brav. In the end, Brav came up and said he wanted it," Gayle explained to reporters.

"We said (before the match) he wouldn't bowl. Obviously we didn't want to risk him but he came up to me and said because of the situation he wanted it.

"He always wants to participate in the game so I have to give credit to Bravo for doing that. He was injured, but he wanted it and I gave it to him."

Bravo conceded just six runs from the over as England reached 193 for seven in reply to the West Indies' 208 for eight.

Gayle managed to provoke the ire of physiotherapist Stephen Partridge, however, but said he had reassured him Bravo would not bowl in Friday's second Twenty20.

"The physio came up to me and said 'hey what's happening there?'. But I promised him he wouldn't bowl tomorrow," Gayle quipped.