Short of a cakewalk victory, but India used 45.5 overs to execute a dominant humbling of West Indies in the 1st ODI at the Kensington Oval.

Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma took the call to bowl first, and boy, was it a masterstroke decision! The bowlers just broke through the floodgates of the West Indian batting order, with the left-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav (4/6) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/37) at the helm.

With a simple target of 115, India were in an authoritative position to flex their muscles and shapeshift the batting. Our Hitman was the leader to the T, sacrificing his opening spot and coming down the order to give some of the ODI specialists game time. Pocket dynamo Ishan took full advantage of his promotion up top to hit a game-deciding innings of 52 in 46 balls.

And of course, RO, from number seven, hit the last nails in WI’s coffin as his troop rounded up a five-wicket victory in 22.5 overs. Let’s relive how the day went.

Mukesh Kumar makes ODI bow. Pacers make merry.

India’s ODI player #251 - Mukesh Kumar - received his ODI cap from Ravindra Jadeja. This comes just a week after making his debut in the Test Whites for the country. And, alongside his pace partners in Hardik Pandya (1/17) and Shardul Thakur (1/14), Mukesh (1/22) got the Windies’ openers to dance to their tunes in the powerplay and reduced the hosts to 45/3 in 8.3 overs.

Sir Jadeja breaks past WI resistance

With the ball turning on the pitch to his delight, adeja claimed three swift dismissals between the 16th and 18th over. He got rid of Hetmyer, Powell and Shepherd just as the hosts looked for a window to come back from their collapse in the powerplay.

Four-star Kuldeep folds the Windies' batting

Taking a cue from Jaddu, Kuldeep Yadav rewound the clock to script one of his best performances with the ball. Three overs, six runs conceded and four wickets; as ice-Kul as he could be.

An I-shaandaar fifty

Handed the license to open the batting, Ishan cruised his way to a 46-ball half-century. His 73-minute stay at the crease included seven fours and a six at a strike rate of 113.04.

Although a lot didn’t happen, the five-wicket win is a key takeaway for India in their preparations for the World Cup later this year. Every win is a motivation booster. Every performance is a happy headache for the selectors. Every experiment has its eyes on October. With less than ten games now to go until the mega event, there’s just too much too take out of this. What’s next then? A day’s rest before the teams reconvene for the second ODI at the same venue and the same time.

Brief scores: India 118/5 (Ishan Kishan 52, Gudakesh Motie 2/26) beat West Indies 114 (Shai Hope 43, Kuldeep Yadav 4/6, Ravindra Jadeja 3-37) by five wickets.