New India Too Strong For New Zealand

First One Day International – Post Match Review

After the white wash at the hands of Bangladesh in the ODIs New Zealand has shown tremendous character during the 1-0 loss to India in the 3-test series. Coming into first match of the ODI series they lost their skipper Daniel Vettori through a minor injury while Gautam Gambhir was captaining his country for the first time.  Stand-in captain Ross Taylor won the toss for New Zealand and elected to bowl first in a hope to get advantage of early moisture in the wicket.

Gambhir and Murali Vijay started cautiously but soon got measure of the wicket and increased the run rate to above run a ball. Both laid a solid foundation of 44 runs in 7 overs but departed after getting in. Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh joined hands at 92 for two in the 16^th over and gave India the partnership which would decide the out come of the match. With senior men like Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dhoni not playing onus was obviously on these two and the man to come, Suresh Raina. Kohli continued his dominant form of the year in which he has been the leading run getter for India. Yuvraj was out done by a Tuffey out-swinger at 179 in the 35^th over. He made 42 off 64 balls, a patient knock by his standards. It was a crucial breakthrough as wicket started to slow down and run scoring was not easy from the outset. Raina did not last long.

Kohli continued to bat fluently and cut, drove and occasionally pulled his way to a run-a-ball century. It was his second consecutive hundred. He was eventually out caught off a slow bouncer by Andy McKay after making 105 off 104 balls including 10 boundaries. The come-back boy Yusuf Pathan threatened for a while but fell to a full toss off Mills after making a quick-fire 29 in 19 balls with 3 fours and a six. India was all out for 276 in 49 overs. Andy McKay took 4 and Kyle Mills 3 wickets. They could have made over 300 runs easily but credit to New Zealand bowlers and fielders who restricted them to a manageable target.

New Zealand needed a solid start but Jamie How got out early after mistiming a pull off Nehra in the 7^th over. New batting prodigy Kane Williamson joined Martin Guptill at the crease and both slowly started laying a foundation for the coming batsmen. Despite having a reprieve Guptill could not go on for a big score and was lured into a lofting shot by Ashwin and was caught at mid on. He made 37 and in came Ross Taylor to resurrect the innings once again. To keep the asking rate under check Taylor opened up a bit and hit two sixes in Yusuf Pathan’s 1^st over. Both shared 67 runs for the third wicket before Williamson was caught at the wicket off Yuvraj for a slow 25 runs.

At the half-way stage they still required 164 runs at 6.6 to the over. Some impetus was needed and Scot Styris was definitely capable of it. Meanwhile Taylor brought up his 50 off just 58 balls and was looking set to get his team to the target. But then came a mini-collapse for New Zealand which turned into a disaster when Ross Taylor too departed after making 66 trying to hit a second successive six of Ashwin.  New Zealand ware reduced to 157 for 7 in the 34^th over. It soon became 169 for 8 with 107 runs required off 87 balls. Barring a herculean effort from some one it was a difficult task for them now.

With defeat looming nonetheless Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills went for their shots to try their luck.  Both by batting brilliantly got close enough to make things interesting. Gambhir clearly wore a worried look on his face when they got within 40 runs of the target in the last five overs. But he himself took a stunner of a catch to get rid of McCullum and wiped-off this last New Zealand resistance. It was all over when Sreesanth got last man Mills the very next ball. They were all out for 236 handing India an easy victory by 40 runs. McCullum and Mills made 35 and 32 runs respectively. Sreesanth, Ashwin and Yuvraj took 3 wickets each. Virat Kohli was named player of the match for his ton. With India 1-0 up New Zealand has a task ahead.