- Victory over West Indies by 8 wickets
- India's batsmen at their best
- A resounding century by skipper Shubman Gill
In the first match of the three-match ODI series, India defeated the West Indies by 8 wickets with 9 overs to spare on the strength of Virat Kohli's record century. Batting first, Windies set a target of 295 for 7 against India. India's batsmen pulled Vijaysree with their skill without any haste
Opting to field first at Thiruvananthapuram's Greenfield International Ground, India initially had to go on the backfoot a bit. Windies batsmen were in good form in power play. But the West Indies middle order literally collapsed in the last session in front of the magical spin of spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
At one point the Windies crossed 400 runs, but the Indian bowlers came back and controlled them.
King Kohli's storm in the field
This match was very important for Virat Kohli. On the one hand, he needed just 59 runs to reach the 15,000 runs mark in ODIs, on the other hand, he wanted to keep his wicket and lead the team to victory. After reaching his half-century, he became the second batsman after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar to cross the 15,000 run mark.
King Kohli didn't stop there, he completed the goal of making the team victorious by scoring a century in a dignified manner. He completed his unbeaten 139 off 88 balls with 10 fours and 9 towering sixes. He was well supported by India captain Shubman Gill (110) before that. Gill hit 13 fours and 1 six in 108 balls.
Opener Rohit Sharma hit 2 fours and 3 sixes in 35 runs and gave Indian cricket fans a chance to cheer. Rituraj Gaikwad, who came at number four, remained unbeaten on 13 runs. India chased down the runs given by Windies by scoring 300 runs in just 41.4 overs.
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Kuldeep turned the match around
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav put pressure on the West Indies batsmen by taking 4 wickets for 40 runs in the first innings. Kuldeep did not allow Justin Graves (101), who scored a century for Windies, to be too aggressive. While captain Shai Hope (12), opener John Campbell (62) was removed by Kuldeep.
Middle-order Amer Django remained unbeaten on 58 for West Indies. Amer's innings helped West Indies reach a respectable 295 runs. Otherwise, the Indian bowlers continued their game by catching the rhythm. But Amer kept his wicket and played.
After Kuldeep, the famous Krishna (2 wickets) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1 wicket) bowled well for India. Ravindra Jadeja, Gurnur Brar and Naman Dhir did not walk in the match. Now India's next ODI will be played in Guwahati on September 30.
Virat Kohli : 'King' broke the record of 'Master', reached the milestone of 15 thousand runs in ODIs