Bridgetown: Guided by wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan's quickfire 52 (in 46 balls), India defeated West Indies by five wickets in the opening ODI here on Thursday.
Chasing a below-par target of 115, India won the match in the 23 over, despite a mini wobble earlier. Opener Subhman Gil, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur got out cheaply. But the target was too low for the Indian batting line-up to be troubled.
For the West Indies, Gudakesh Motie was the pick of the bowlers, with the left-arm spinner picking up two wickets for 26.
Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav ran through the West Indies batting line-up to reduce them to 114 in just 23 overs.
Hardik Pandya (1/17 in 3 overs), starting with the new ball alongside debutant Mukesh Kumar (1/22 in 5 overs), set the tone with a tight first spell before Jadeja and Kuldeep finished the innings in a jiffy.
Skipper Shai Hope's 43 was the top score for the hosts as only two other batters were able to cross the double-digit mark.
Once Jadeja (6-0-37-3) and Kuldeep (3-2-6-4) operated in tandem, the West Indies team didn't have the quality to survive on a track that had extra bounce to trouble the batters.
Kyle Mayers wanted to free himself and only managed a slog that went to skipper Rohit Sharma at mid-on while Jadeja timed his jump to perfection at point to latch on to an Alick Athanaze (22 off 18 balls) slash after a brief but adventurous stay at the crease.
Shardul Thakur (1/14 in 3 overs) then bowled a perfect in-cutter to clan up Brandon King (17) as the gulf in standard was pretty evident, and why West Indies failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup was as clear as daylight.
With the pitch offering a bit of pace, both Jadeja and Kuldeep were able to hurry the batters as Shimron Hetmyer's (11 off 19 balls) struggles were apparent while trying an ugly lap-scoop off Jadeja.
In the case of another T20 star Rovman Powell, he couldn't gauge the turn that Jadeja got off the surface while Kuldeep forced the West Indies skipper to try an uncharacteristic reverse sweep and embarrassingly get yorked in the process.
For his brilliant spell, Kuldeep was declared the player of the match.
Brief scores:
West Indies 114 in 23 overs (Shai Hope 43, Alick Athanaze 22, Kuldeep Yadav 4-6, Ravindra Jadeja 3-37) lost to India 118-5 in 22.5 overs (Ishan Kishan 52, G Motie 2-26).
