Kochi, Nov 21: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hit sparkling half-centuries as a clinical India continued their domination over West Indies by thrashing the visitors by six wickets in the opening ODI of the three-match series, here today.
Asked to bowl, spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina exploited the low and slow conditions of the Nehru Stadium wicket effectively to bundle out West Indies for a meagre 211 in 48.5 overs.
Kohli then smashed 86 off 84 balls, while Rohit made 72 off 81 balls to help India chased down the target with consummate ease in 35.2 overs and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Kohli decorated his knock with nine boundaries and two huge sixes, while Rohit’s innings was laced with eight hits to the fence and one over it.
India, however, received a jolt early on in their chase in the form of Shikhar Dhawan (5). Dhawan departed in the fourth over as he edged a back of a length delivery from Jason Holder to Johnson Charles behind the stumps with scoreboard reading 17.
But then Rohit and Kohli joined hands and shared a 133-run second wicket stand that came off just 130 deliveries to lay the foundation for an easy win.
None of the West Indies bowlers seemed to create any trouble for Kohli and Rohit as both the batsmen adopted attacking approach from the onset to take the game out of the visitor’s grasp.
Rohit brought up his 19th ODI fifty off 53 balls as India reached the 100-run mark in 15.3 overs.
Kohli was not to be left behind as he reached his half century in 58 balls with a single off Dwayne Bravo in the 24th over.
But just when it seemed the duo would take India home without any further damage, Rohit mistimed a pull to Lendl Simmons at deep midwicket off Ravi Rampaul’s bowling in the next over.
Kohli, however, was in no mood to get bogged down by the dismissal as he continued his attacking game. (PTI)
Scoreboard
West Indies 211-10 (48.5) Runs Balls 4s 6s
Chris Gayle run out (Bhuvneshwar) 0 2 0 0
Johnson Charles c and b Jadeja 42 34 7 1
Marlon Samuels b Raina 24 35 2 1
Darren Bravo b Shami 59 77 4 2
Lendl Simmons lbw b Raina 29 40 1 1
Narsingh Deonarine b Raina 4 14 0 0
*Dwayne Bravo st Dhoni b Jadeja 24 28 2 1
Darren Sammy c Bhuvneshwar b Jadeja 5 16 0 0
Jason Holder not out 16 27 2 0
Sunil Narine c and b Ashwin 0 6 0 0
Ravi Rampaul c Dhawan b Ashwin 1 14 0 0
Extras: 7 b:0 lb:1 nb:0 w:6
Total: 211-10 (48.5) | Curr. RR: 4.32
India 212-4 (35.2) Runs Balls 4s 6s
Rohit Sharma c Simmons b Rampaul 72 81 8 1
Shikhar Dhawan c Charles b Holder 5 6 1 0
Virat Kohli c Narine b Holder 86 84 9 2
Yuvraj Singh not out 16 29 2 0
Suresh Raina c Holder b Narine 0 5 0 0
*MS Dhoni not out 13 7 3 0
Extras: 20 b:5 lb:0 nb:0 w:15
Total: 212-4 (35.2) | Curr. RR: 6.00
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