India vs West Indies: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma make mockery of stiff 323-run chase

Riding on scintillating hundreds from skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma, India cantered to an easy eight-wicket win against the West Indies in Guwahati on Sunday.

Chasing a stiff target of 322 runs powered by a century from Shimron Hetmeyer, Kohli and co made it look ridiculously easy as they notched up the total with 7.5 overs to spare.

India won the toss at the Barsapara Stadium and chose to bowl first with youngster Rishabh Pant being handed his maiden ODI cap by none other than MS Dhoni.

Debutant Chandrapaul Hemraj was the first one to bite the dust after he dragged back a delivery from Mohammad Shami that wasn’t too short to have been pulled. At 19/1 a 65-run stand between Kieran Powell and Shai Hope paved the way for a comeback for the visitors. The duo looked good as hey neutralised the threat that the Indian bowling brought to the table.

But the momentum didn’t take much time to shift when Khaleel Ahmed got the wicket of Powell, who found Shikhar Dhawan near the boundary to bring an end to an entertaining 51 of 39 balls which had six fours and two sixes.

Shami’s pace again provided India with another wicket when Hope top-edged one to Dhoni as India slowly tightened their grip on the contest.

Also Read: AB de Villiers says Virat Kohli is great skipper who learnt from his mistakes

Marlon Samuels, who has featured in a lot of India-West Indies duels in the past couldn’t make merry on his 200th outing for his country in 50-over cricket as he was trapped in front in just the second delivery he faced from leggie, Yuzvendra Chahal.

But the highlight o the West Indies innings was Hetmeyer’s terrific ton which kept their hopes alive of a grand finish. The left-hander smashed his way to a 106  with six fours and as many sixes, off just 78 balls to set up the visitors for a big total as they ended with 322/8 at the end of their allotted 50 overs.

For India, the best bowler was Chahal who scalped three wickets for 41 runs. Shami and Jadeja took two scalps each while Ahmed had just one to his name.

India didn’t have the start they’d have ideally wanted as Dhawan fell in the last ball of the second over to debutant Oshane Thomas after the southpaw dragged back a speedy delivery on off-stump right onto the woodwork behind him–a dismissal similar to that of Powell.

But from then on, it was the Kohli-Rohit show as the duo completely took the fight to the visitors with a mammoth 246 runs stand that more or less decided the outcome. Kohli, the number one ranked batsman in ODIs added more weight to that reputation with his 36th ton in the 50-over format while Rohit carried on to end on an unbeaten 152 of 117 balls as India chased down the total with ridiculous ease in just 42.1 overs.

The Indian captain was adjudged player of the match for his sparkling 140 of just 107 balls which had 21 fours and two sixes as India took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Brief score: India 326 for 2 (Rohit 151*, Kohli 140) beat West Indies 322 for 8 (Hetmeyer 106, Kieran 51, Chahal 3-41) by 8 wickets.