Virat Kohli always leaves his mark on the cricket field. Even when he is not batting, Kohli never ceases to impress. On Thursday, Kohli was at his best as he made some brilliant saves for India against West Indies in the first ODI. The highlight was Kohli's catch of Romario Shepherd off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling. In the 18th over, Shepherd tried to steer Jadeja's delivery on the off-side only to find Virat Kohli's extremely safe hands. The WI batter looked shocked and disappointed at the dismissal as Jadeja broke into a celebration.
Ravindra Jadeja tightened the noose and Kuldeep Yadav went for the final kill as an out of sorts West Indies were bowled out for 114 in just 23 overs by India in the opening ODI here on Thursday.
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 PTI inputs