Kuldeep Yadav claimed six wickets while Rohit Sharma starred with the bat with an unbeaten century as India crushed England by eight wickets in the first ODI in Nottingham on Thursday.
Electing to bowl, India bowled out England for 268 courtesy of Kuldeep's career-best figures of six for 25. Rohit then led India's confident reply with the bat as the visitors cruised to 269 for two in 40.1 overs to register an emphatic eight-wicket win with 9.5 overs to spare to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Rohit finished unbeaten on a brilliant 137 from 114 balls, hitting 15 fours and four sixes. His partnership of 167 runs for the second wicket with captain Virat Kohli, who stroked 75 from 82 balls, had put India in control of the run chase.
Shikhar Dhawan gave India a quickfire start as he stroked 40 from 27 balls before he was dismissed by Moeen Ali, caught on the off-side but there was no stopping Rohit, who completed his second successive century, having also hit a hundred in the third T20 against England.
KL Rahul, who walked in at No. 4, hit the winning single as he finished unbeaten on nine.
India were hardly troubled with the bat as Rohit and Kohli dominated in the middle overs with some superb strokeplay. Rohit completed his 50 from 54 balls in the 22nd over, while Kohli took 55 balls to reach the same landmark.
Rohit lifted the tempo after reaching his fifty as hit pacer Mark Wood for two boundaries in the 25th over.
He took no time to bring up his century as he lofted leg-spinner Adil Rashid for a straight six to reach the landmark from just 82 balls.
Meanwhile, Kohli missed out on a possible century as he was dismissed stumped off Rashid for 75, in the 33rd over.
Earlier, chinaman spinner Kuldeep again cast a spell on England’s batsmen with his mesmerizing wrist spinners. His career-best figures of six for 25 restricted the hosts to a moderate 268.
Once Virat Kohli opted to field, the English script unfolded very much on similar lines with the T20 series, where things went downhill as soon as Kuldeep was introduced into the attack.
Jos Buttler (53 off 51 balls) looked the most comfortable batsman while Ben Stokes (50 off 103 balls) played a painstaking knock. Together, they added 83 for the fifth wicket, showing signs of recovery, but Kuldeep dismissed the two set batsmen in quick succession to bring about the home team's downfall.
Moeen Ali (24) and Adil Rashid (22) added a few quick runs to help England cross the 250-run mark before they were all out in the final over with a delivery left.
That Kuldeep was singularly responsible for England's batting collapse was evident more so because the next best figures were 2 for 70 in 9.5 overs by Umesh Yadav.
Even Kuldeep's spin twin Yuzvendra Chahal (1/51 in 10 overs) was not exactly economical.
The match started with both Jason Roy (38) and Jonny Bairstow (38) launching into Yadav and debutant Siddarth Kaul (0/62 in 10 overs) with a flurry of boundaries.
They added 73 for the opening stand before a wrong execution of reverse sweep brought about Roy's downfall.
Kuldeep was not afraid to flight the ball and dipped viciously having the batsmen in two minds. Some played with the turn and some tried against the turn -- both with dismal outcome.
At the start of the 13th over, Joe Root (3) was completely befuddled by a ripping leg break and was trapped lbw. Four balls later, Bairstow was trapped lbw via DRS, failing to read the googly.
England had collapsed to 82 for 3, losing three wickets for nine runs in the space of 16 balls. Soon, it became 105-4 as Chahal got into the mix of things with Eoin Morgan (19) caught at cover.
This brought Stokes and Buttler together at the crease, and they put on 93 runs for the fifth wicket. Losing too many wickets meant that they had to take time and rebuild the innings, with Stokes in particular scoring at a very low strike-rate.
Buttler though continued his rich vein of form and smacked his 18th ODI half-century off 45 balls. In doing so, he put on 50 off 59 balls with Stokes, yet it was only a part-recovery for England.
Throughout his innings, Buttler batted with most ease against both pace and spin, and hit five boundaries in all. It appeared as if he was preparing for an assault in the death overs, but Kuldeep sucked out any momentum that he had built.
Buttler was caught behind down leg side off the left-arm wrist spinner in the 39th over as England were just short of the 200-mark.
It made a huge impact on the run-rate as only 16 runs came in the next five overs, blowing away any hopes the hosts had of reaching 280-300.
Stokes too completed his 12th ODI half-century in the interim, off 102 balls, but it was only an anchoring knock.
Kuldeep wasn't finished yet though. In the 45th over, Kaul held a brilliant diving catch at short third-man to reward him with a maiden five-wicket haul. Then, five balls later, David Willey (1) also holed out.
Moeen swung his bat around, as England managed to cross 250 in the penultimate over.
