Ross Taylor (109* off 84) scored his 21st One-Day International (ODI) hundred supported by half-centuries from Henry Nicholls (78) and Tom Latham (69) as New Zealand overhauled India’s mammoth 347/8 to win the opening match of the three-match ODI series in Hamilton on Wednesday (February 5). After coming close and missing out on three back to back occasions in run-chases during the T20I series, the Blackcaps seem to have learnt their lessons finally as at Seddon Park they did not make much fuss in closing the match comfortably with four wickets and 11 balls to spare. This was also New Zealand’s highest successful run-chase ever in an ODI.
However, the platform of such a massive chase was laid out by Martin Guptill and Nicholls’ opening stand of 85 inside 16 overs. Then Taylor took over proceedings and formed and crucial partnerships of 62 with Nicholls, followed by a 138-run alliance with stand-in skipper Latham, who was captaining the side in place of injured Kane Williamson, which took the game away from the Indians.
Alongside Taylor’s big-hitting, Latham too was quite impressive calculative yet attacking batsmanship. His 49-ball knock had seen eight fours and two sixes whereas his partner hit 10 boundaries and two massive sixes. Since the match was not played on the central turf, one side of the boundary was shorter than the other and almost all the New Zealand batters took advantage of that.
Towards the end, when the home team lost Latham, James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme in quick successions, the panic bottom was about to get pressed in the New Zealand camp but on this occasion Taylor and the new man at the crease Mitchell Santner were not ready to slip way yet another fixture against India. With just 13 needed off 17, Santner pulled Shardul Thakur over the ropes to ease nerves. In the end, Taylor scored the winning runs to put an end to their recent horror run in international cricket.
In hindsight, the Indian had a horrible day on the field and with the ball. Taylor got an early reprieve of Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling, when he offered one skier but Kuldeep Yadav failed to grab that. And like any great player does, he made the Indians pay for that missed opportunity.
Also, in bowling apart from Jasprit Bumrah, other leaked a lot of runs as someone like Thakur went for 80 in his nine overs whereas Kuldeep’s left-arm spin yielded 84 in his 10, with two scalps to his name. Even the likes of Mohammed Shami and Jadeja went for a lot of runs. Additionally, there were 29 extras in which 24 were wide balls, which sums up the visitors’ effort in the second innings of the match.
Earlier in the day, put into bat the two debutant Indian openers – Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal – provided a 50-run opening stand. But on a pitch, which offered some early sideways movement to the pacers, New Zealand bounced back with two quick wickets.
At 54 for 2, Kohli was joined by Shreyas Iyer and they steadied the ship with a 102-run stand for the third wicket. Kohli scored six crisp boundaries en route to a half-century before failing to read a googly from Ish Sodhi and getting bowled. Then it was the KL Rahul-Iyer show, which changed the momentum of the game as from 156 for 3 after 30 overs, India scored 191 in the next 120 balls, majorly thanks to the efforts of those two batsmen.
Meanwhile, Iyer too had his fare share of lucks in route to his maiden ODI ton as he was dropped twice in a span of four balls. Later, in the company of Rahul, he found his confidence before both batsmen unleashed a flurry if boundaries in the middle-overs. Eventually, his three-figure milestone came in 99 balls whereas in his innings of 103, the Mumbai batsman hit 11 fours an 1 six.
Following his dismissal, Rahul (unbeaten 88 off 64, with six sixes and three fours) and Jadhav sustained the momentum by bringing up India’s 300 in the 44th over and then took their team close to the 350-mark. But at the end of the day, unfortunately for the visiting team the score proved to be insufficient against the rejuvenated Kiwis.
The second match of the series is schedule to happen at Eden Park, Auckland on Saturday (February 8).
Brief scores:
India 347/4 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 103, KL Rahul 88*, Virat Kohli 51; De Grandhomme 1/41) lost to New Zealand 348/6 in 48.1 overs (Henry Nicholls 78, Ross Taylor 109*, Tom Latham 69; Kuldeep Yadav 2 for 84) by 4 wickets.
Player of the match: Ross Taylor