The match lasted just over the duration of an innings and the Indian team had enough energy and enthusiasm left to slot in a long game of football under the WACA lights afterwards. Despite the lack of fight from UAE, though, the defending champions managed to test out a few areas that they had not been able to during their first two games.

They were made to bowl first, something they had not done against Pakistan and South Africa. They were without Mohammed Shami, who had provided them early breakthroughs with the new ball in both those matches. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had not bowled in a game since the warm-up against Australia nearly three weeks ago, was drafted in for his first match of the World Cup, and sent down five reasonable overs.

In the chase, Shikhar Dhawan departed for his first low score of the tournament, and Rohit Sharma made his first decent score in three matches. So there were some takeaways for India even from a match in which they were overwhelming favourites , and in which they registered their biggest ever World Cup win in terms of balls remaining.

It was good that India lost the toss, for they were looking to bat first as well. Bat first, bat big and bat the opposition out is the way they have looked to go in this World Cup, and it had worked alright against Pakistan and South Africa. Had they done so against UAE as well, it would have been the same template repeated with probably a bigger margin.

It would have also meant that they would have had gone halfway through the group stage without knowing how their bowlers would do if they had to set up a target. UAE played too many shots too early against a versatile attack on a bouncy pitch, but India's bowlers were not lacking in intensity against lesser opponents.

Shami had claimed Younis Khan and Quinton de Kock cheaply, but in his absence, Umesh charged in with rhythm and bowled with lots of pace and bounce. Too often, he beat the batsmen for speed on both fuller and shorter deliveries. And the delivery to get the opposition's form player, Shaiman Anwar, was a peach that was angled in and swung away late to hit off stump. It would have claimed even better batsmen.

Bhuvneshwar would not have played had it not been for Shami's unavailability. Whether he has bowled or not in the nets has become headline material in recent weeks, so carefully have India been treating him as he eases back from an ankle injury. Bhuvneshwar had worked up a decent pace and flow during training last afternoon, and was getting some neat away swing in the warm-ups ahead of the match. He bowled only five overs against UAE, and was largely accurate, but looked rusty at times. MS Dhoni, however, was pleased with his bowler's first outing in a while.

"It was good to give him a game," Dhoni said. "I thought Bhuvi started off well. He was slightly up in pace. That's what it felt like from behind. It's good to see the whole fast-bowling unit available for selection. We'll see who is the best on those particular wickets that are provided. It's good to see him getting a bit of action."

There was not much to achieve for the batsmen with a target of 103, but Rohit has not had much game time after picking up a hamstring injury at the start of the one-day tri-series. He threw away a start against Pakistan, and was run out for a duck against South Africa. Rohit is someone who needs quite some time in the middle to get a feel of things and remaining unbeaten on a fifty will have given him just that. All in all, India took away a bit more than two points and a better net run-rate from their first of two matches in Perth.