Kochi: Sachin Tendulkar's retirement seemed to have sealed the record books, but they are now bound to come off the shelves. Quite a few notable landmarks were scaled as India took apart the West Indies in the first of the three-match ODI series at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here on Thursday.
Virat Kohli's masterful 86 was the best of several individual efforts that India had in store as they first restricted the Windies to a humble 211 and then won by six wickets with more a quarter of their share of overs remaining. Kohli took guard needing 81 runs to equal Viv Richards' fastest 5,000 ODI runs and he now rubs shoulders with the legend after an imperiously commandeering knock.
As he pulled Jason Holder for six Kohli punched the air and even though he perished off the next ball, the win had all but been sealed. Along with Rohit Sharma, he ran the show, whipping the visitors' profligacy.
The latter scored a classy 72 to surpass Misbah-ul Haq on the highest rungetter table of 2013.
With Chris Gayle playing no further part in the match after his bizarre run out followed by an awkward hamstring pull that led to hospitalisation, early on, the West Indies found themselves short of a slow bowler on a turning track.
While Kohli's innings was packed with conviction, Rohit was equally authoritative. It was a match for the home side to throw away as Dwayne Bravo's boys lacked commitment in each segment of the game was watched over by over 50,000.
While the West Indies, in their innings attempted to slog recklessly, the Indians showed how it should be done, by rotating the strike and lunching only on to give-aways. The chips were in favour of India right after the second delivery of the match when Gayle was found short of the popping crease, attempting a single.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his follow through had taken out the Jamaican with a direct hit. From India's perspective quality in the spin department proved vital.
Suresh Raina offered variety with his off cutters and Jadeja found turn, flipping his fingers.
Jadeja's third wicket that of Darren Sammy, caught at long-on was his 49th in 2013 and it surpassed Saeed Ajmal's record 48 scalps for Pakistan this year. At full stretch off his own bowling, the southpaw brought an end to a cruising partnership between Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels.
SCORECARD West Indies: C. Gayle (run out) 0, J. Charles c & b Jadeja 42, M. Samuels b Raina 24, Darren Bravo b Shami 59, L. Simmons lbw b Raina 29, N. Deonarine b Raina 4, Dwayne Bravo st Dhoni b Jadeja 24, D. Sammy c Kumar b Jadeja 5, J. Holder (not out) 16, S. Narine c & b Ashwin 0, R.Rampaul c Dhawan b Ashwin 1.
Extras ( (l lb b1 1, , w w6 6) ) 7 7. . T To ot ta al l ( (i in n 4 48 8. .5 5 o ov ve er rs s) ) 2 21 11 1. .
FoW : 1-0, 2-65, 3-77, 4-142, 5152, 6-183, 7-187, 8-204, 9-206.
Bowling: Kumar 5-0-26-0, Unadkat 6-0-39-0, Shami 6-028-1, Jadeja 10-0-37-3, Raina 10-1-34-3, Ashwin 9.5-0-42-2, Rohit 2-0-4-0.
India: R. Sharma c Simmons b Rampaul 72, S. Dhawan c Charles b Holder 5, V. Kohli c Narine b Holder 86, Yuvraj (not out) 16, S. Raina c Holder b Narine 0, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 13. E Ex xt tr ra as s ( (b b5 5, , w w1 15 5) ) 2 20 0. . T To ot ta al l ( (f fo or r f fo ou ur r w wi ic ck ke et ts s i in n 3 35 5. .2 2 o ov ve er rs s) ) 2 21 12 2. .
FoW: 1-17, 2-150, 3-192, 4-194.
Bowling: : Rampaul 8-0-39-1, Holder 8-0-48-2, Sammy 2-014-0, Narine 10-1-57-1, Deonarine 2-0-15-0, Simmons 3-0-14-0, Bravo 2.2-0-20-0.
