( CNN ) India made the perfect start to its defense of cricket 's World Cup with an emphatic 76-run victory over arch-rival Pakistan in a Pool B opener in Adelaide Sunday . Inspired by a century from man-of-the-match Virat Kohli , India piled up 300 for seven wickets in its 50 overs , with Pakistan dismissed for 224 in 47 overs . The match was played before a sell-out crowd of over 40,000 at the Adelaide Oval , the vast majority supporters of the two powerhouses of Asian cricket . Pakistan 's pursuit of a formidable total on a slow wicket was hampered by indifferent batting against a persistent Indian bowling attack , led by paceman Mohammed Shami , who took four wickets for 35 runs . Misbah-ul-Haq top-scored for Pakistan with 76 before giving Shami his fourth wicket , but he could find little support from its middle and lower order batsman and the result had an air of inevitably about it as wickets tumbled . Earlier , Kohli , given two chances when dropped on three and 76 , became the first Indian player to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match . He shared century stands with opener Shikhar Dhawan ( 73 ) and Suresh Raina , who smashed 74 off 56 balls against a wilting Pakistan bowling attack , with 83 runs coming off the final 10 overs . Sohail Khan led the Pakistan attack with five wickets for 55 runs , but was expensive in his closing overs . `` It 's one of the biggest wins of my career . It 's amazing to start like this , '' said Kohli , who was scoring his 22nd one-day international century . `` Expectations of me will rise but I just look to stand up to it . `` I hate losing . I love to win and play for my country . My role is to play a long innings so that the power hitters can play with freedom , '' he added . Watch : Can India win back-to-back World Cups ? Pakistan captain Misbah acknowledged his team had lost to the better side on the day . `` They played well , posted a good total and bowled well . When we lost wickets in the middle it made it hard , '' he said . The opening weekend of the six-week long tournament has seen victories for joint hosts Australia and New Zealand against England and Sri Lanka respectively , while earlier Sunday South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 62 runs . The 14 teams in the World Cup , which is held over four years , are divided into two pools of seven teams each with the top four from each group qualifying for the quarterfinal knockout stage .
India beats Pakistan in World Cup cricket opener for both sides . India is the reigning champion after 2011 triumph on home soil . Virat Kohli century inspires 76-run victory in Adelaide . TL;DR The Indian team beat Australia by an innings and a half to win their first ever match against them.