New Zealand on Wednesday successfully chased India’s 347 run target to secure a thrilling win in the first One Day International of the bilateral series. The Kiwis defeated India by four wickets with nearly two overs to spare.
India had scored 347 for the loss of four wickets in their quota of 50 overs. Shreyas Iyer scored a fine century before getting out for 103. KL Rahul was unbeaten at 88 while skipper Virat Kohli made 51.
New Zealand achieved the target without much struggle by losing six wickets. The heroes of the Kiwis’ batting were Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholas and Tom Latham with the three batsmen scoring 107 not out, 78 and 69 respectively.
Taylor was declared Man Of The Match for his centurion knock.
Almost all Indian bowlers were very expensive. Jusprit Bumrah conceded 53 runs without taking a wicket, Mohammed Shami took one wicket for 63 runs, while Shardul Thakur gave away 80 runs in nine overs to claim his lone wicket of Martin Guptill. Ravindra Jadeja failed to take a single wicket despite conceding 64 runs in 10 overs. Kuldeep Yadav picked up two wickets but gave away 84 runs in 10 overs.
Reacting to his side’s splendid win, Latham said, “Great performance from the guys. Long time between drinks to get across the line. It was probably a few more than we would have liked. For us, it’s about having partnerships and we managed to build them really well. It was obviously nice to make the contribution and the way Ross played was fantastic. He has done it time and again for us.”
Kohli, for his part, added, “It was an outstanding performance by New Zealand. They batted outstandingly well. We thought 348 was good enough. Ross is the experienced batsman they have, but Tom’s innings was the one that took away the momentum. Credit to Taylor and Tom. Look, we didn’t grab onto one chance, but we were decent. Something we need to keep improving. We can’t focus on too much things. Today, the opposition played better than us and they deserved to win. I think the debutants gave us a good start and hopefully they continue. Iyer was outstanding getting his first ODI hundred under pressure, KL again. These are positives for us.”
This was the fifth-highest successful run chase in the history of ODI. The highest-ever run-chase in ODI was by South Africa in 2006 when they successfully surpassed Australia’s total of 434. Both sides will lock horns in the second ODI of the series in Auckland on 8 February.
