Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar set up India’s comfortable six-wicket win over the West Indies in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Rohit Sharma took to the field as India’s new full-time ODI captain and his decision to bowl was vindicated by the two spinners as the hosts bowled out the West Indies for 176.
The skipper’s top-scoring 60 then helped India romp home in just 28 overs on the day they became the first team to reach the 1,000 ODI milestone. They lead the three-match series 1-0.
“I don’t believe in a perfect game. We want to keep getting better as a team and all in all, it was a great effort from everyone,” Rohit, who took over as white-ball captain from Virat Kohli, said after the win.
“Honestly, I don’t think we need to change a whole lot. All I will ask of the players is to challenge yourself and be innovative.”
The West Indies had slipped to 79-7 before Jason Holder hit 57 to salvage some dignity for the visitors.
Leg-spinner Chahal returned figures of 4-49 – including the key wicket of skipper Kieron Pollard for nought – to rattle the West Indies batsmen.
Pace bowler Mohammed Siraj struck first in the third over to send back Shai Hope as an incoming delivery got the wicketkeeper-batsman’s inside edge on to the stumps.
India introduced spin in the eighth over and off-spinner Sundar soon made it count, dispatching Brandon King for 13.
Chahal broke the West Indies’ back with successive strikes but Holder avoided the hat-trick.
Holder put on 78 runs with Fabien Allen, who made 29, to offer some resistance against India’s onslaught.
He went past 2,000 ODI runs and then raised his 11th half-century in the 50-over format but finally fell to Krishna, who finished with figures of 2-29.
The West Indies batting has regularly faltered recently, including in their previous ODI series loss to Ireland last month when they failed to bat out their 50 overs in three matches.
“We got to dig deeper and get better with techniques, again myself included,” Pollard said.
Rohit came out attacking and dominated returning pace bowler Kemar Roach to smash two fours and one six in the 10th over.
He put on 84 runs with opening partner Ishan Kishan and made his half-century in 42 balls before Alzarri Joseph trapped him lbw, also sending back Kohli in the same over.
Kohli announced his arrival with two successive boundaries but got caught out at long leg two balls later.
Joseph said “it was a pretty slow wicket, spin-friendly” which made life tough for the fast bowlers.
Left-arm spinner Hosein got the wicket of Kishan for 28 and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was run out while backing up at the non-striker’s end as India wobbled.
Suryakumar Yadav, who made 34, and debutant Deepak Hooda, who scored 26, saw the team home with their unbeaten stand of 62.
The hosts wore black armbands to pay their respects to superstar Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar, known as the “Nightingale of India”, who died earlier Sunday at the age of 92.
The second ODI is on Wednesday, with all three matches to be played at the same venue.
