New Zealand registered their first win of the ongoing tour by winning the first ODI by 4 wickets and 1.5 overs to spare at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Wednesday. Chasing 348 for the win, New Zealand created a new record for the highest total chased down by them in ODIs. This was the tenth highest chase of all time.
New Zealand’s chase was headlined by an aggressive partnership between Ross Taylor (109*) and Tom Latham (69) that yielded 138 runs and took New Zealand from 171/3 in the 29th over to 309/4 in the 42nd over. By the time this partnership was broken, New Zealand were well in sight of victory.
Earlier, the hosts had been given a good start by Martin Guptill (32) and Henry Nicholls (78). A direct hit by Kohli to effect a run out at Nicholls’s end gave India a crucial breakthrough in the match. However, Taylor and Latham built their partnership after this and gradually took the game away from India.
New Zealand lost a flurry of wickets after the Taylor-Latham partnership was broken, leading to fears that they would suffer a last-minute capitulation once again, but Mitchell Santner put these fears to rest by smashing Shardul Thakur for a six and a four in the 48th over.
India had produced a commanding batting performance in the first innings of the match to post 347 for four. Sent into bat first, Shreyas Iyer (103 off 107 balls) scored his maiden ODI century, while KL Rahul (88 not out) and skipper Virat Kohli (51) made fine fifties. Tim Southee (2/85) picked up two wickets for the hosts.
India had gone into the match with an opening duo of Prithvi Shaw (20) and Mayank Agarwal (32), with regular openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan ruled out with injuries. Both had decent starts before being dismissed in quick succession in the Powerplay overs itself.
However, it was Iyer’s dominant display with the bat and Rahul’s strong finish that helped India post a competetive total.
After having gone down by a 5-0 margin in the T20I series, the hosts have taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match bilateral ODI series. The next match will be played in Auckland on Saturday.
