New Delhi: An unbeaten 94 from skipper Virat Kohli helped team India seal the series opener at Hyderabad on Friday. At first, it seemed that the fiery batting performance from Windies, that gave India a 208-run target, ensured the visitors’ win in the thrilling first T20I game. However, a heroic knock from KL Rahul, followed by a master-class innings from Kohli helped India clinch the Hyderabad T20I by six wickets and take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

On way to his unbeaten 94, Kohli hit six fours and as many sixes from the 50 balls that he faced. In the 16th over of India’s innings, a fired up Virat Kohli used his bat as an imaginary notebook to "tick" Kesrick Williams’ name off, after smashing the Windies bowler for a six.

Asked about Kohli's gesture during a presser, Windies skipper Kieron Pollard said: "He is an animated character, a great batsman and he continues to show the world that he is a world class batsman.

"His theatrics or whatever, it comes as part and parcel of the game. Sometimes you have to be like that to pump yourself to score runs and so I am fine with it."

Pollard lauded his team's batsmen for attaining a massive total batting first but came down hard on his bowlers for failing to defend 200-plus run target.

"I think we batted pretty well. We scored above 200 runs which more often than not you take that. But discipline in bowling and execution let us down tonight," Pollard said at the post-match press conference on Friday night.

"We gave 23 extras, 14 or 15 of those wide deliveries, so when you look at that, those were extra balls and extra overs. When you give a class team like India these many extra deliveries, you are destined for trouble.

"No balls are something we stress on in terms of non-negotiable and we bowled a couple of them tonight. It's something we need to look on."