Port of Spain: India survived a late cameo by Christopher Barnwell as the ODI champions kicked off their West Indies tour with a 16-run victory in the one-off Twenty20 international here at the Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday.

The West Indies all-rounder scored an unbeaten 34 off 16 balls to give India a late scare after Rohit Sharma (26) and S Badrinath’s (43) 71-run partnership helped India reach a healthy 159/6.

Harbhajan Singh (2/25), Praveen Kumar (1/27), R Ashwin (1/30) and Munaf Patel (1/35) then helped India beat West Indies for the first time ever in Twenty20 cricket.

Skipper Suresh Raina deployed his two premier spinners Harbhajan and Ashwin inside the powerplay, and the tweakers responded by drying up runs for the hosts.

That eventually led to the first wicket when Ashwin got rid of Lendl Simmons (9), who was given out under dubious circumstances as he didn’t seem to edge the ball, which lobbed off Parthiv Patel’s gloves for a simple catch to Virat Kohli at slips.

Munaf Patel, brought on to bowl the next over, then responded with the second ball of his spell by cleaning up Andre Fletcher (11) with a yorker.

Darren Bravo (41) and Marlon Samuels (27) put on 66 runs for the third wicket but they consumed more than 11 overs in the process.

With run-rate mounting, there were some easy pickings for the Indians in the final overs. Harbhajan claimed both Samuels and Bravo in one over, and Praveen Kumar struck in the next to push the hosts towards defeat.

Ironically, in an innings where the Indian spinners held sway, Ashwin was picked up for a four and two successive sixes by Barnwell - in all 19 runs in the off-spinner’s final over.

Earlier, a half-century partnership for the fifth wicket between Rohit and Badrinath and a breezy finish by the lower order took India from 56/4 to a competitive total.

The duo took India out of trouble after West Indies skipper - opting to bowl first - wrecked havoc with a spell of 4/16 at the top of Indian innings.

West Indies new-ball bowlers backed the team’s decision as they forced Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel to be watchful against their nagging line and length under overcast conditions.

Dhawan especially failed to cope up with the moving ball and ultimately edged one off Sammy straight to wicketkeeper Andre Fletcher to give West Indies an early breakthrough.

However, a confident Kohli started middling the ball right from the word go, providing urgency to India’s scoring rate. And it rubbed off to Patel, which was evident in his pick-up shot for six off an Andre Russell over in which India scored 19 runs to end the powerplay at 46 for one.

But the seventh over, bowled by Sammy, delivered a body blow to the Indian innings that saw first Kohli (14) and when Patel (26) being dismissed off successive deliveries.

Kohli fell for a slower Sammy delivery, which he played across the line and a leading edge was lapped up by Danza Hyatt, who almost collided with a converging Marlon Samuels.

Off the very next delivery, Patel was undone by the lack of pace as Sammy’s off-cutter foxed him into an early square drive, which he scooped straight to Samuels.

Sammy chose to keep himself on and it paid rich dividends to the West Indies as the skipper took his fourth wicket in the form of his counterpart Raina (2), who offered a simple chance to Christopher Barnwell at mid-on.

India got a lucky break when middle-order batsman Badrinath was caught at short extra-cover off Ravi Rampaul, returning for his second spell, only for third umpire to rule that he had overstepped the bowling crease in his delivery.

Badrinath rubbed further salt into Rampaul’s wounds when he smote the free-hit into the extra cover fence but not before fielder Ashley Nurse caught it brilliantly, running and diving full length to his left, only to touch the ropes with the impact of his body.

Yusuf Pathan (15) and Harbhajan (15) then rattled off 23 runs together off a mere 11-ball association for the seventh wicket to give india a fair total.