On the back of a quick 60 from captain Rohit Sharma and an unbeaten stand of 62 for the fifth wicket between Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda, India scripted a six-wicket win over West Indies in the series opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
India's 1000th ODI appearance ended on a winning note barring a scare when they went from 84/0 to 116/4 in 17.3 overs. But Yadav and Hooda ensured there were no more hiccups for India, who achieved the target with 22 overs to spare.
Chasing a lowly 177, India made a solid start, scoring 67 in the powerplay. Captain Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan smashed boundaries at will. While Sharma looked gorgeous in leg-side glances and drives through off-side, Kishan was eye-catchy in his pulls through mid-wicket.
Sharma took a special liking to Kemar Roach, smashing the pacer for boundaries through mid-on and mid-off in the eighth over. The right-hander followed it up with fours through pull over square leg and a deliberate late cut through third man and a cracking six pulled over square leg.
Post first power-play, Sharma reached his 44th half-century in this format and continued to hit boundaries off Alzarri Joseph and Akeal Hosein. It was Joseph, though, who broke the 84-run opening stand. Getting one to nip in from outside off, Joseph rapped Sharma high on his pads while trying to flick. Sharma took the review but umpire's call on DRS while hitting the stumps meant he had to depart for 60.
Virat Kohli fetched boundaries on his first two balls but mistimed a pull off Joseph and the top-edge flew to fine-leg to become the second big scalp of the right-arm pacer in the 14th over.
Rishabh Pant got going with two boundaries while Kishan continued to hold the fort. But Kishan, in an effort to unsettle Hosein, went for a big slog-sweep and instead picked out the fielder at backward square-leg to perfection.
In the very next over, Pant was run-out at the non-striker's end a straight drive from Suryakumar Yadav was met by Joseph sticking his right foot out on follow-through and deflected to hit the stumps.
Yadav swept and played a delicate late cut to pick successive boundaries off Hosein while debutant Deepak Hooda fetched his first boundary in ODIs with a back-foot punch through mid-off off Joseph. The duo crunched boundaries while stitching a handy stand of 62 off 63 balls before Yadav finished off the chase with a slice through backward point.
Brief scores: West Indies 176 all out in 43.5 overs (Jason Holder 57, Fabian Allen 29; Yuzvendra Chahal 4/49, Washington Sundar 3/30) lost to India 178/4 in 28 overs (Rohit Sharma 60, Suryakumar Yadav 34 not out; Alzarri Joseph 2/45, Akeal Hosein 1/46) by six wickets.