Kuldeep, Jadeja star as India beat West Indies in 1st ODI

BRIDGETOWN: Spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja combined to take seven wickets between themselves as India thrashed West Indies by 5 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series at Kensington Oval, here on Thursday.

After bowled out West Indies for a paltry 114 in just 23 overs, the visitors reached the target in just 22.5 overs. Opener Ishan Kishan scored 52 runs from 46 balls. Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya contrib-uted 7, 19 and 5 respectively.

Earlier, right from winning the toss and electing to bowl first on a pitch giving assistance to bowlers, things went all right for India.

Kuldeep, brought into the attack from the 17th over, spun a vicious web to take four wickets for just six runs in three overs to lead the charge in bowling out West Indies for their second lowest ODI total against India.

Jadeja, on the other hand, set the base for the West Indies collapse by picking three wickets for 37 runs. All rounders Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur and debutant seamer Mukesh Kumar took a scalp each as fielders took excellent catches in an excellent all-round performance for India.

Captain Rohit Sharma's decision to bowl first paid off as he took the catch of Kyle Mayers at mid-on off Har-dik Pandya in the third over. Brandon King (17) and Alick Athanaze (22) batted nicely with some delightful bound-aries off the pacers and put on 38 runs for the second wicket.

But the duo were separated in the eighth over when Mukesh got his first ODI wicket as Athanaze cut uppishly to backward point, followed by King chopping on to his stumps off Thakur in the next over.

Skipper Shai Hope stuck around to make 43 off 45 balls, but was running out of partners from the other end. Shimron Hetmyer's ODI comeback ended with him missing the sweep against Jadeja and seeing his leg-stump being rattled in the 16th over.

Jadeja came back in his next over to have Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd caught at slips in a span of three deliveries. Kuldeep then took over to trap Dominic Drakes, Yannick Cariah and Hope lbw with his googlies, before ending a sorry batting show of West Indies by having Jayden Seales caught at leg-slip.

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)

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