Mumbai: Virat Kohli made his 200th ODI even more special with a classy 31st hundred against New Zealand in the opening match of the three-game series, but unfortunately it came in a losing cause at the Wankhede here on Sunday. After posting 280/8, India went down by six wickets.
Ross Taylor and Tom Latham were in sparkling forms and the right and left hand combination made the chase of 281 ridiculously easy, on what initially seemed a difficult track for strokeplay.
Latham remained unbeaten on 103 (102b, 8x4, 2x6) while Taylor made 95 (100b, 8x4) as the duo gathered 200 in 187 balls for the fourth wicket to steer their team home with an over to spare.
The Kiwi batsmen adapted to the conditions well and made Indian bowlers look spineless. Taylor and Latham played risk-free cricket and employed sweep and cuts with finesse to ward off the spinners.
They dealt in ones and twos mostly to put on a 100-run stand in 107 balls and carried on to double it till the end.
India had a chance to break the fourth-wicket partnership but Dhoni and Kohli’s throws were off target.
The wicket eased a bit in the evening as Indian bowlers couldn’t get same purchase as their opponents. The aggressive New Zealand opening pair of Martin Guptill (32) and Colin Munro (28) gave the Kiwis a good start of 48. Kane Williamson (6) went early as New Zealand were looking down the barrel at 80/3 in 18th over but from they moved only upwards.
Earlier, the Indian skipper grafted his way on a slower wicket against a disciplined attack before taking off at the death to help India post a challenging 280/8. He scored 121 in 125 balls with nine boundaries and two sixes during his 203-minutes stay at the crease out of total 233 minutes of Indian innings. Kohli came in the fourth over after Shikhar Dhawan nicked left-arm pacer Trent Boult (4/35) to wicket-keeper Latham.
India were reduced to 29/2 with Boult cleaning up Rohit Sharma (20).
Scorecard
India: R. Sharma b Boult 20, S. Dhawan c Latham b Boult 9, V. Kohli c Boult b Southee 121, K.M Jadhav c & b Santner 12, D. Karthik c Munro b Southee 37, M.S Dhoni c Guptill b Boult 25, H. Pandya c Williamson b Boult 16, B. Kumar c Nicholls b Southee 26, K. Jadhav (not out) 0. Extras: (lb4, w10) 14. Total: (for 8 wkts, in 50 overs) 280.
FoW: 1-16, 2-29, 3-71, 4-144, 5-201, 6-238, 7-270, 8-280.
Bowling: Southee 10-0-73-3, Boult 10-1-35-4 (2w), Milne 9-0-62-0 (3w), Santner 10-0-41-1 (3w), de Grandhomme 4-0-27-0 (1w), Munro 7-0-38-0 (1w).
New Zealand: M. Guptill c Karthik b H. Pandya 32, C. Munro c Karthik b Bumrah 28, K. Williamson c Jadhav b Yadav 6, R. Taylor c Chahal b Bhuvneshwar 95, T. Latham (not out) 103, H. Nicholls (not out) 4.
Extras: (lb11, w5) 16. Total: (for 4 wkts, in 49 overs) 284.
FoW: 1-48, 2-62, 3-80, 4-280
Bowling: Kumar 10-0-56-1 (2w), Bumrah 9-0-56-1 (1w), Yadav 10-0-64-1, Pandya 10-0-46-1 (2w), Chahal 10-0-51-0.
