India on a roll

Men in Blue kick off ODI series with 8-wicket victory against England agencies n nottingham

Kuldeep Yadav's (6/25) heroic bowling effort followed by Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 137-run knock sealed a comfortable eight-wicket victory for India against England in the first match of the three-match One-Day International (ODI) rubber at Trent Bridge here on Thursday.

Chasing a moderate target of 269 runs for victory, Inida rode on Rohit and skipper Virat Kohli's (75 off 82) knock to take a 1-0 lead in the series with ease.

Earlier, England succumbed to Kuldeep's brilliant bowling display, as the wrist spinner emerged with his best ODI figure on a batting-friendly wicket.

Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav once again cast a spell on the England batsmen with his mesmerizing wrist spinners as his career-best 6 for 25 restricted the hosts to a moderate 268 in the first ODI, here on Thursday.

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.

None of the England batsmen were able to read him and a testimony to that was his brilliant figures of 10-0-25-6. He bowled an astounding 38 dot balls and not once was he hit for a boundary. This was Kuldeep's first five-for in ODIs after he had recently achieved the same feat in T20Is during the Manchester encounter.

As usual Jos Buttler (53 off 51 balls) looked the most comfirtable while Ben Stokes (50 off 103 balls) played a painstaking knock. Together, they added 83 for the fifth wicket showing signs of recovery but he 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 ro 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.