First One day: India beat WI by six wickets, take 1-0 lead in three match series

Kochi: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hit half-centuries as India continued their domination over West Indies by thrashing the visitors by six wickets in the opening ODI of the three-match series on Thursday.
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 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.

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.
With India needing just 26 runs to win, Kohli clobbered Holder over the square-leg boundary to bring up his 5000 runs in the 50-over format in just 114 innings and become the joint quickest to reach the landmark along with West Indian batting legend Viv Richards.

But Kohli perished in the very next ball in search of one too many as, looking to loft the ball straight over the bowler’s head, he mistimed a shot to Sunil Narine, who gleefully accepted the skier.

Next in, Suresh Raina’s woeful form with the bat continued as he went for a duck, handing an easy catch to Holder at point off Narine’s bowling.

Yuvraj Singh (16 not out) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (12 not out) then ensured that there was no further damage as they took India home.

Earlier, Jadeja finished with three for 34, while Raina took three for 37 to rock the West Indies batting line-up. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also chipped in with two wickets giving away 42 runs.