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Yusuf Pathan clobbered 3 sixes and 2 fours in his 24-ball 30 to take India to victory in 46 overs
Pathan's blitzkrieg knock came after George Dockrell trapped Indian captain MS Dhoni plumb in front of the wicket to place India at 167/5 in 40.1 overs.
Dhoni went for the review but could not get the decision in his favour.
Dhoni added 67 runs with Yuvraj Singh for the fifth wicket before getting dismissed.
The partnership came after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli fell in quick succession to leave India at 100/4 in 23.4 overs.
Kohli was run out after a misunderstanding with Yuvraj after George Dockrell trapped Tendulkar plumb in front of the wicket.
Tendulkar put up a 63-run partnership with Kohli before he tried to sweep a delivery from the left-arm spinner but missed the ball completely. After some consultation with Kohli, Tendulkar decided not to go for the review and the replays showed that the batting great was indeed out.
This was after the Indian run chase got off to a bad start as Trent Johnston dismissed Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in his alternate overs to place India at 24/2 in 5.2 overs.
Johnston took an easy return catch off the leding edge of Sehwag's willow off his very first delivery.
In the sixth over, Johnston had Gambhir caught by Alex Cusack at short fine-leg to give Ireland their second breakthrough.
Earlier, Yuvraj Singh did a star turn with the ball to bag his maiden five-wicket haul as India bundled out Ireland for a modest 207 in their group B match.
Yuvraj's figures of 5-31 are best by a left-arm spinner in the history of World Cup as Ireland were all out in 47.5 overs.
Put into bat after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss, Ireland lost two early wickets to Zaheer Khan before rival captain William Porterfield rode on an early reprieve to rescue the team from a precarious situation.
The Ireland skipper, who was dropped for nought by Yusuf Pathan standing in the slips of the second ball of the match bowled by Zaheer, ensured that he capitalised on his 'life'.
Porterfield (75 off 104 balls) along with Niall O'Brien (46 off 78) put on 113 runs off 148 balls for the third wicket to put his team back on track, but the skipper's dismissal at a crucial juncture allowed India to fight back into the match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
During his 146-minute stay in the middle, Portefield hit six boundaries and a six, while Niall O'Brien's knock included three hits to the fence. Alex Cusack made 24 of 30 balls, but overall, the Irish line-up found Yuvraj too difficult to handle on a track where batting never looked the hardest thing in the world.
After the two early blows, it was more about a battle for survival for Ireland. But Portefield and Niall O'Brien both showed gumption during an association, which not just steadied what seemed like a sinking ship a little while ago, but also yielded runs on the board.
They did a sensible thing by not taking on Zaheer, who was moving the ball both ways, but more than made it up with their cautious approach against Zaheer by milking the spinners.
Runs came at a healthy pace as long as the two were in the crease. Apart from an attack that lacked bite, the Irish duo was also helped by some sloppy ground fielding by the Indians, though Virat Kohli made up for his few lapses by running out the senior among the O'Brien brothers.
Earlier, barring Zaheer's opening burst during which he picked up the wickets of Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce, Dhoni kept rotating the other bowlers in the early part of the Ireland innings, with Munaf Patel being replaced twice within the first 15 overs.
Zaheer gave India an early breakthrough when he went through Paul Stirling's half-hearted drive with a delivery that swung in off the track.
The left-arm seamer struck again when Ed Joyce edged one to Dhoni after failing to read a ball that zipped inward on landing. What left the batsman foxed was that Zaheer, before that wicket-taking inswinger, were bowling away-going deliveries at will.
