PUNE – India skipper Virat Kohli said Tuesday's 66-run win over England was "one of the sweetest" after his bowlers hit back following a batting onslaught in the first one-day international.
Chasing 318 for victory, the tourists were bowled out for 251 in 42.1 overs despite Jonny Bairstow's 94 and his opening stand of 135 with Jason Roy to trail the three-match series 1-0.
Shikhar Dhawan hit 98 while KL Rahul, 62 not out, and Krunal Pandya, unbeaten 58 off 31 balls, steered the hosts to 317-5 after being put into bat first.
"This is one of our sweetest victories in the recent past," skipper Virat Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
"It is right up there purely because from 135-1 getting nine wickets is simply outstanding. I am a really, really proud man right now."
Prasidh Krishna, who returned ODI figures of 4-54, a best by an Indian on debut, and fellow quick bowler Shardul Thakur shared seven wickets between them and turned the game on its head after the Bairstow-Roy blitz.
Krishna broke the stand to send back Roy for 46 and then struck in his next over with the key wicket of Ben Stokes for one.
He nearly got his third on the next ball when Morgan edged his first ball to Kohli at slip but the India captain dropped the catch.
Thakur soon took over from Krishna to deny Bairstow his hundred after getting the opener caught at deep midwicket.
He then struck twice in his next over to send back Morgan, for 22, and Jos Buttler, lbw for two, as England slipped further to 176-5.
Moeen Ali made a fighting 30 before falling to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who combined with Pandya and Krishna to wipe out the tail.
"We need to execute better than we did today. India did really well and deserved to win," said England captain Eoin Morgan.
"Being able to take the attack to the opposition is something that we pride ourselves on. We want to continue to push the envelope in that regard. It's better for us to lose like this than losing by 20 runs."
'Bigger scores'
The away side have fitness worries after Sam Billings "sprained his collar bone joint" and skipper Morgan needed four stitches on the webbing between his thumb and index finger.
On the injuries Morgan said, "we are going to wait 48 hours, see how it is. Give them as much time as needed to hopefully be available for Friday (second ODI).
"When you have a split webbing fielding is a concern and with Sam obviously landing while he is fielding."
For India, left-hander Pandya, who played alongside his younger brother Hardik Pandya, put on an unbroken stand of 112 with wicketkeeper-batsman Rahul as India finished with a flourish.
Stokes struck first with his pace bowling, claiming Rohit Sharma caught behind for 28. He returned figures of 3-34 from eight overs.
Dhawan put on 105 for the second wicket with Kohli. He made his 31st ODI fifty with a six off leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
Kohli reached a run-a-ball fifty but fell for 56 to pace bowler Mark Wood.
"If I had stayed with Shikhar around that 40-over period we could have got 350," said Kohli.
"England hit some amazing shots, and scores will be high scoring moving forward, and we'll look to get bigger scores moving forward."
Dhawan, who hit 11 fours and two sixes in his 106-ball knock, fell short of his hundred after he mistimed a pull off Stokes.
Pandya completed his 50 in 26 balls to record the fastest fifty for an ODI debutant and later choked up with emotion while dedicating the innings to his father who died in January.
AFP