India recovered from a poor start to record a 16-run win over the West Indies in their tour-opening Twenty20 international at Port of Spain.West Indies captain Darren Sammy chose to field after winning the toss and took four quick wickets himself to reduce India to 56 for four in the ninth over.
His medium pace removed Shikhar Dhawan (5), Virat Kohli (14), Parthiv Patel (26) and Suresh Raina (2), for figures of four for 16.
But once Sammy's allocation of four overs was up, his team-mates were unable to match his high standards, and India's fightback was impressive as they reached 159 for six.
Subramaniam Badrinath found the boundary five times in a 37-ball innings of 43, while Rohit Sharma sped to 26 from 23 balls and both Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh flung the bat in the closing overs to each finish unbeaten on 15 not out.
India's late onslaught left the home side needing to score at a rate of eight runs an over, but until it was too late they were plodding on at an average of a run a ball.
Openers Andre Fletcher (11) and Lendl Simmons (9) fell cheaply, to Munaf Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin respectively, yet for a while it appeared Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels were building a decent platform.
Their scoring rate was just not high enough though, and when both men departed as victims of Harbhajan in the 16th over, West Indies had only 92 runs on the board.
Bravo made 41 and Samuels 27, and their departures arguably offered the home team a better chance of piling on late runs.
Sammy's batting let him down, as he fell for a second-ball duck, and there was too much ground to make up for Danza Hyatt and Christopher Barnwell.
Despite both men hitting out rather impressively in unbeaten innings - Hyatt with 14 from seven balls and Barnwell with three sixes in his 34 from 16 deliveries - the Caribbean side finished adrift on 143 for five.
The match was a one-off Twenty20 tussle. Five one-day internationals follow - the first two on Monday and Wednesday at the Queen's Park Oval venue used for today's contest - plus three Tests.
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