Skipper Virat Kohli smashed a majestic 122 while Kedar Jadhav conjured up a career-best 120 before India's lower middle-order held their nerve to pull off an incredible three-wicket win over England in the first One-day International at Pune on Sunday.
Kohli and Jadhav rattled up a sensational 200-run partnership for the fifth wicket to set up the platform after England set the hosts a stiff 351-run target.
Chips were down for India after losing four wickets for just 63 runs but Kohli and Jadhav scripted a comeback with their gritty batting as Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) and Yuvraj Singh (15) could not contribute much in the chase.
India required 60 runs from the last 10 overs after the fall of both Kohli and Jadhav but Hardik Pandya ensured that their good work didn’t go waste with his responsible unbeaten 40-run innings.
Pandya saw Ravindra Jadeja losing his wicket in the 45th over but the young allrounder kept his cool to steer India to the finish line. He hit a six off Adil Rashid to level the scores and R Ashwin finished it in style, hammering Moeen Ali into the stands in the first ball of the 49th over.
India have taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with the next match scheduled at Cuttack on 19 January.
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England had feasted on a listless Indian bowling to pile up 350 for seven, their highest total in ODIs against India with Joe Root (78), opener Jason Roy (73) and Ben Stokes (62) striking half-centuries.
The score bettered the 338 for eight made by England in the tied encounter of the 2011 World Cup in Bengaluru but their effort on Sunday proved insufficient.
It was a new chapter for India with Kohli leading the side after being declared leader of the team in all three formats but the hosts had forgettable first 60 overs as they conceded 350 runs and lost quick wickets when India began their chase.
KL Rahul (8), Shikhar Dhawan (1) and comeback-man Yuvraj were back in the pavillion and soon Dhoni joined them to leave India reeling at 63 for four.
Thereafter, Kohli and Jadhav not only restructured the innings, but they put India within the touching distance of victory.
Kohli's 122 came off just 105 balls with eight shots to the fence and five over the ropes. It was the Indian captain's 27th ODI hundred.
Jadhav, who was cramping heavily in the later part of his innings, completed his hundred in 65 balls, which was the fifth fastest hundred by an Indian. Overall he took 76 balls for 120 which had 12 fours and four sixes.
India lost Jadeja in the 45th over but there was no more drama with Pandya staying till the end. His 40 runs came off 37 balls with three fours and six.
Earlier, England paced their innings well with Roy being the early aggressor with a 61-ball 73, inclusive of 12 fours, that was built upon by Root, who stroked his way to 78 in 95 balls.
Captain Eoin Morgan (28) and Jos Buttler (31) got the starts without converting them into a bigger score at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
The left-handed Stokes used his bat like a sledgehammer to smack five sixes and two fours on his way to 62 off just 40 balls after reaching 50 in 33 balls.
The last 10 overs of the innings brought England 115 runs, including 65 in the final five to leave India to score at an asking rate of 7.02 to win the game and go 1-0 up in the three-match rubber.
For India, Hardik Pandya (2/46) and Jasprit Bumrah – who was taken for 79 runs – finished with two wickets each.
The most impressive bowler was left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who not only applied the skids on England early on but also emerged with economic figures of 1 for 50.
Jadeja's Test spin twin Ravichandran Ashwin was unimpressive and gave away 63 runs in eight overs without a wicket to his name.
Speedster Umesh Yadav was slammed for 63 runs runs in seven overs for a lone wicket late in the innings.
(With inputs from PTI)
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