Chasing 190, Sachin Tendulkar (27) and Virender Sehwag (39) provided a brisk start before India lost five wickets and it took Yuvraj Singh's mature 51 not out to steer them home in 36.3 overs.
Opting to bat first, the Netherlands had earlier put 189 runs on boards before losing all their wickets in 46.4 overs at the near-capacity Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
Eric Szwarczynski (28) and Wesley Barresi (26) provided a sedate 56-run opening stand and down the order, captain Peter Borren (38 off 36 balls) came up with a desperate knock to push the score but the 200-mark eventually eluded them.
Scoreboard:
Netherlands:
Eric Szwarczynski b Chawla 28
Wesley Barresi lbw b Yuvraj 26
Tom Cooper c Dhoni b Nehra 29
Ryan ten Doeschate c Khan b Yuvraj 11
Alexei Kervezee c Harbhajan b Chawla 11
Bas Zuiderent lbw b Khan 0
Tom de Grooth run out 5
Peter Borren c Nehra b Khan 38
Bradley Kruger run out 8
Mudassar Bukhari b Khan 21
Pieter Seelaar not out 0
Extras: (6b, 3lb, 2w, 1nb) 12
TOTAL: (all out) 189
Overs: 46.4; Batting time: 191 minutes.
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-64, 3-99, 4-100, 5-101, 6-108, 7-127, 8-151, 9-189, 10-189.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 6.4-0-20-3, Ashish Nehra 5-1-22-1, Yusuf Pathan
6-1-17-0, Harbhajan Singh 10-0-31-0 (2w), Piyush Chawla 10-0-47-2 (1nb),
Yuvraj Singh 9-1-43-2.
India:
Virender Sehwag c Kervezee b Seelaar 39
Sachin Tendulkar c Kruger b Seelaar 27
Yusuf Pathan c & b Seelaar 11
Gautam Gambhir b Bukhari 28
Virat Kohli b Borren 12
Yuvraj Singh not out 51
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 19
Extras: (4w) 4
TOTAL: (for five wickets) 191
Overs: 36.3; Batting time 160 minutes.
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-80, 3-82, 4-99, 5-139.
Did not bat: Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra.
Bowling: Mudassar Bukhari 6-1-33-1 (2w), Ryan ten Doeschate 7-0-38-0
(2w), Pieter Seelaar 10-1-53-3, Peter Borren 8-0-33-1, Tom Cooper
2-0-11-0, Bradley Kruger 3.3-0-23-0.
Result: India won by five wickets.
Toss: India.
Umpires: Steve Davis, Australia, and Bruce Oxenford, Australia.
TV umpire: Billy Doctrove, West Indies.
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.