India beat New Zealand by six wickets in 1st ODI

Virat Kohli's scintillating performance engineered yet another victory, this time with a fluent, unbeaten 81-ball 85, as India wrapped up a six-wicket win against New Zealand in the first One Day International here on Sunday.

Chasing 191, India won in 33.1 overs in its 900th ODI, the winning runs deservedly coming from Kohli in style, a huge straight six off Ish Sodhi.Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane gave a good start with a 49-run opening partnership. Both fell in quick succession, a settled Rahane caught behind trying to poke at a delivery wide outside the off-stump, and Manish Pandey did not survive long. Then Kohli and skipper M.S. Dhoni came together and all but completed the job.

Kohli’s cover drives were exquisite. While his hits through the gaps were perfectly timed, his strokes were mere caressing of the ball.His 60-run partnership with Dhoni looked set to take India home before the Indian captain was run out trying to return to his crease after setting out for a tight single. That was the only time there was indecision from the Indian batsmen in the game.

Hardik Pandya earned an ODI cap, Tim Southee got his maiden half-century in the 50-over format and Tom Latham became the first New Zealand cricketer to carry his bat in one-dayers.

The visitors, put in to bat, folded up for 190 in 43.5 overs, of which 134 were scored by Latham and Southee, who put together 71 runs for the ninth wicket and thus a semblance of respectability to the team’s score, after having been reduced to 48 for the loss of five wickets, and then 65 for seven in under 19 overs.

Pandya capped his dream debut by being named Man-of-the-Match for his three wickets that broke the backbone of the Kiwi batting.New Zealand’s top-order collapse was in equal measure due to their inability to dig in and move their feet and the Indian bowlers’ ability to force wrong shots.

On a pitch that made life easy for those who looked to adjust to it, the New Zealand batsmen appeared in needless hurry to get the runs and perished. Martin Guptill was the first to go, edging a length ball from Pandya in his first over to Rohit Sharma at second slip, after



striking three boundaries.

While Latham (79) stood up and delivered with patience and panache, his teammates appeared more keen on following the Guptill template but fell without getting the runs. Captain Kane Williamson struggled to middle the ball and went for three, Ross Taylor edged his first ball to Dhoni standing up close to Umesh Yadav and Kedar Jadhav, who had a single List A wicket in his career till then, took two wickets in as many balls.

Doug Bracewell tried to resist but ultimately became Amit Mishra’s 50th ODI wicket, caught by Ajinkya Rahane diving in front at midwicket. That brought in Southee and, dropped on two by Yadav at fine leg, the paceman made sure India would regret it.

SCOREBOARD:

Martin Guptill c Sharma b Pandya 12

Tom Latham not out 79

Kane Williamson c Mishra b Yadav 3

Ross Taylor c Dhoni b Yadav 0

Corey Anderson c Yadav b Pandya 4

Luke Ronchi c Yadav b Pandya 0

James Neesham c & b Jadhav 10

Mitchell Santner c Dhoni b Jadhav 0

Doug Bracewell c Rahane b Mishra 15

Tim Southee c Pandey b Mishra 55

Ish Sodhi lbw b Mishra 1

Extras: (2b, 1lb, 8w) 11 Overs: 43.5

TOTAL: (all out) 190

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-29, 3-33, 4-43, 5-48, 6-65, 7-65, 8-106, 9-177, 10-190.

India Bowling: Umesh Yadav 8-0-31-2 (3w), Hardik Pandya 7-0-31-3, Jasprit Bumrah 8-1-29-0 (2w), Kedar Jadhav 3-0-6-2, Axar Patel 9-1-41-0 (3w), Amit Mishra 8.5-0-49-3.

Rohit Sharma lbw b Bracewell 14

Ajinkya Rahane c Ronchi b Neesham 33

Virat Kohli not out 85

Manish Pandey c Williamson b Sodhi 17

MS Dhoni run out Guptill/Ronchi 21

Kedar Jadhav not out 10

Extras: (1lb, 13w) 14  Overs: 33.1

TOTAL: (for 4 wickets) 194

Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-62, 3-102, 4-162.

Did not bat: Hardik Pandya, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

New Zealand Bowling: Tim Southee 9-0-57-0 (2w), Doug Bracewell 8-2-44-1 (1w), James Neesham 6-0-40-1 (6w), Ish Sodhi 4.1-0-34-1, Mitchell Santner 6-0-18-0.