After winning the T20I series, India have made a forgetful start to the ODI series as New Zealand registered a comfortable 7-wicket win in the series opener on Friday (November 25) at Auckland’s Eden Park. The Black Caps’ effort was aided by a career-best unbeaten knock of 145 in 104 balls by Tom Lathan alongside a Kane Williamson’s 98-ball 94.
Earlier India had put up a total of 306 on the board with both openers Shikhar Dhawan (72) and Shubman Gill (50) scoring half-centuries as part of a 124-run opening stand. While Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav failed to produce the goods, Shreyas Iyer played an important knock of 80 while Sanju Samson (36) and Washington Sundar (37) played vital cameos to give the Men in Blue a strong finish.
Both Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson took three wickets each for the Kiwis with the ball while Adam Milne chipped in with one wicket.
India had given two bowlers a debut with Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik playing an ODI game for the first time. Both players had contrasting matches as Arshdeep had a day to forget. The left-armer conceded 68 runs in just 8.1 overs without taking a wicket.
On the other hand, Umran put his raw pace on display while constantly cracking the 150 kmph mark to create problems for the Kiwi batters. In fact, the youngster chipped in with two vital wickets of Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell while conceding 66 runs in his 10-over spell. Apart from Umran, Shardul Thakur also got one wicket while Washington Sundar bowled a tidy spell in which he gave away just 42 runs in 10 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal had a poor day as he was thrashed for 67 runs in his 10-over spell.
Latham and Williamson got together on the crease with New Zealand at 88-3 but put up an unbeaten 211-run partnership to take the hosts home with ease. The two teams will play each other in the second ODI on Sunday (November 27) at the Seddon Park in Hamilton.
