Brief score: India (300/2 in 41.4 ovs) beat West Indies by (295/7) by 8 wickets in Thiruvananthapuram.
There are innings that confirm a player is still around, and then there are innings that make the conversation around him feel rather silly. Virat Kohli produced the latter in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, smashing an unbeaten 139 off 88 balls as India chased down West Indies’ 295/7 in 41.4 overs to win by eight wickets with 50 balls to spare.
Kohli did not simply anchor the chase. He went after it. He brought up his 55th ODI hundred in 74 balls, hit a career-best nine sixes in an ODI innings and finished the match with back-to-back maximums off Keacy Carty. He also became only the second batter after Sachin Tendulkar to reach 15,000 ODI runsdoing so in his 303rd innings, 74 innings quicker than his idol.
IND vs WI, 1st ODI: HIGHLIGHTS
For a while, this looked like it could be Shubman Gill’s evening. The India captain made 110, his 10th ODI hundred, and reached the landmark in the 31st over. He had been given a life on 11, but once he settled in, Gill controlled the chase beautifully. Rohit Sharma had also started positively at the other end, only for Alzarri Joseph to dismiss him for 32 after another brisk start.
Then Kohli walked in and changed the mood of the chase.
He attacked almost immediately, particularly against Alzarri, and there was no sense that the 15,000-run landmark was weighing on him. He raced to his fifty in 40 balls, got to 59 off 46 to complete the milestone and then simply kept going. West Indies dropped him on 125, and what followed was the sort of hitting that has been missing from the recent conversations around his ODI future. Nine sixes, 13 fours and 139 not out from 88 balls. If there were still doubts about whether Kohli has enough left for the 2027 ODI World Cup, this was another emphatic reminder of his calibre.
The chase was made possible by Kuldeep Yadav first. West Indies had raced to 135 for the opening wicket through Justin Greaves and John Campbell, with Greaves battling through injury to make his maiden ODI hundred. He scored 101 from 108 balls, while Campbell made 62. Kuldeep then ripped through the middle order with 4/40, removing Campbell, Shai Hope, Greaves and Jewel Andrew and pulling West Indies back from a position where 320-plus had looked possible.
KOHLI UNLOCKS GOD MODE
The most striking part of Kohli’s innings was not even the 15,000-run milestone. It was the hitting.
He did not spend long getting himself in before taking on Alzarri Joseph. The boundaries kept coming, the sixes became more frequent and the strike rate kept climbing. By the time he reached his hundred, the familiar Kohli had turned into a far more destructive version of himself.
Nine sixes was a new high for Kohli in an ODI innings. He had never cleared the ropes that many times in a 50-over international before, and he kept going after reaching three figures. The final two balls of the match disappeared over the boundary as Kohli finished unbeaten on 139 from 88.
There was a freedom to the innings that stood out. He was not simply collecting singles and waiting for the death overs. He was taking on the bowlers throughout the chase, and once he found his rhythm, West Indies struggled to contain him.
The 15,000-run milestone added another layer to the occasion. Tendulkar, Kohli’s idol, reached the mark in his 377th ODI innings. Kohli did it in his 303rd, becoming only the second batter in men’s ODI history to cross 15,000.
The century was another record in itself. Kohli now has 55 ODI hundreds, extending his lead over Tendulkar’s 49 at the top of the format’s century list. Against West Indies, meanwhile, he continues to produce. He had already scored 2,261 ODI runs against them before this innings, including nine centuries, and added another hundred to that tally in Thiruvananthapuram.
DON’T FORGET GILL’S CENTURY
It would be unfair to let Kohli’s brilliance completely swallow what Gill produced. The captain’s 110 was a proper chase-building innings, with enough aggression to keep India comfortably ahead of the asking rate without taking unnecessary risks.
Gill had Rohit for company at the start, and the pair put India in a strong position before Rohit fell for 32. The former captain had looked in good touch, but another promising start did not become a big score.
Gill then settled into the innings and became the constant presence at the other end while Kohli took charge of the acceleration. His 10th ODI hundred came in the 31st over when he punched Jayden Seales through mid-on for four before removing his helmet and acknowledging the Thiruvananthapuram crowd.
The landmark also took Gill into an exclusive group of Indian batters. He became only the fourth India captain to score an ODI century against West Indies, joining Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli. It was his 10th ODI hundred overall, bringing him level with MS Dhoni for the joint-fourth most ODI centuries by an Indian batter.
Gill’s hundred might have been the headline on another day. Instead, it became the support act to Kohli’s extraordinary assault.
West Indies also made life harder for themselves. Gill was dropped on 11, Rohit received a reprieve earlier and Kohli was put down on 125. Against an India side with this much batting quality, those chances were costly.
KULDEEP COVERS UP FOR PACERS
India’s batting made the chase look straightforward, but the first innings was far less comfortable.
Greaves and Campbell took the attack apart early, putting on 135 in 19.2 overs. Greaves was particularly severe against the seamers, reaching his fifty from 42 balls and then continuing despite an injury to complete his first ODI hundred. His 101 came from 108 balls and included 12 fours.
For much of that opening partnership, India were missing the control they would normally expect from their pace attack. Greaves found enough room to play his shots, while Campbell attacked Ravindra Jadeja early. The West Indies openers pushed the scoring rate beyond six an over and suddenly a sizeable first-innings total was on the cards.
That was where Kuldeep stepped in.
The left-arm wrist-spinner had already kept Campbell guessing with his variations before finally getting him to miscue a sweep. Shai Hope followed after being deceived by a subtle change of line, and then Kuldeep removed Greaves and Jewel Andrew with successive deliveries.
Greaves was beaten under his sweep and given out lbw, while Andrew had little answer to a googly on the middle-and-off line. In the space of a few deliveries, West Indies had gone from 176/1 to 198/5.
Amir Jangoo’s unbeaten 58 helped West Indies recover and take the total to 295/7, but Kuldeep had done enough to stop what had looked like a potentially 320-plus score. His 4/40 was the spell that gave India the platform for the chase.
It also leaves India with one clear area to work on. The seamers struggled to contain Greaves and Campbell, and Kuldeep’s intervention was needed to pull the innings back. With Jasprit Bumrah away at the Asian Games and India looking to settle their combination before the 2027 World Cup, the next two ODIs will offer another chance to assess the attack.
India now head to Guwahati for the second ODI on September 30, before the series moves to Mullanpur for the third and final match on October 3.
– Ends
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