Samuels hit nine fours in his ton before retiring

World Cup hosts West Indies did enough to beat minnows Kenya by 21 runs in a warm-up match in the inaugural game at the Trelawny stadium in Jamaica.

Opener Chris Gayle made 75 and Jamaican local Marlon Samuels hit nine fours and two sixes in a 91-ball century before retiring as the home side posted 268-4.

Kenya, coached by ex-West Indies star Roger Harper, lost two early wickets.

Collins Obuya made an impressive 54 not out but Kenya were unable to keep up with the run-rate and ended on 247-7.

Daren Powell, Corey Collymore and newcomer Kieron Pollard all took two wickets for West Indies, who will take on Pakistan in the opening game of the tournament next Tuesday.

"I was happy with the first half of the game. We had to bat on a pitch which was doing a bit and we came through it.

"I feel, however, we did not do as well in the second half of the game, but this was just a warm-up and some of the guys were playing their first match for some time.

"We will get back in the nets and try to work on some of the areas in which we fell down," home skipper Brian Lara commented.

West Indies lost Shivnarine Chanderpaul for a duck at the start of their innings but the batting of Gayle soon had the crowd on their feet.

He collected nine fours and a six in his 90-ball innings before he was bowled missing an attempted reverse sweep off Hiren Varaiya.

There was good news for the World Cup hosts as Ramnaresh Sarwan returned to action after a hand injury with 27, but he had to play second fiddle to Samuels, who is now adding consistency to his undoubted natural talent and showed no sign of worry about an ongoing investigation into claims that he recently passed team information to a bookmaker in India.

"Marlon Samuels has the ability - I have known that since he was 16 years old and first saw him play first-class cricket. Now he is getting more of an opportunity and is responding well.

"We are really appreciative that he is coming to the party just at this moment before the World Cup. He is in the right frame of mind now," said Lara.

"One of the things we have stressed inside the team is that we need to find more match-winners in the team, and he is finding his way to that level."

Samuels's century was greeted by a cacophony of noise from the vocal crowd but he ran all the way to the dressing room as soon as he reached three figures to give 19-year-old team-mate Pollard some batting practice.