Fifty overs. Forty-three overs. It doesn’t quite matter. India are a bot designed to score 300 and not too many more when batting first, which proved to be more than enough against the inexperienced West Indies batting. No team has scored as many 300s as India – 96 – and it was fitting that they took the lead by seamlessly recalibrating their approach in a rain-curtailed ODI.
Ajinkya Rahane got to his third ODI century – the period approaching his hundred was the only slow spell in India’s innings, Shikhar Dhawan’s run continued with yet another half-century, and Virat Kohli knocked off an effortless 87 off 66. Shai Hope delayed the inevitable West Indies defeat with a fine 81, but once they had lost two wickets before the first run had been scored off a bat, further rain was their only ally. It was not to be.
Summarized scores: India 310 for 5 (Rahane 103, Kohli 87, Dhawan 63) beat West Indies 205 for 6 (Hope 81, Kuldeep 3-50, Bhuvneshwar 2-9) by 105 runs