Another masterful knock from Virat Kohli helped India chase down 273 against New Zealand and get their fifth straight win in the ongoing World Cup.
Mohammed Shami picked up a fifer to restrict the Black Caps to well under 300 and Kohli’s (95) fourth fifty-plus score in the tournament guided them home later.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India a strong start. The pair, who mostly dealt in boundaries, added 71 runs for the first wicket before Lockie Ferguson cleaned up Rohit for 46(40).
Shortly after the pacer got rid of Gill for 26(31). Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then added 52 runs for the third wicket before Trent Boult got rid of Iyer for 33(29).
KL Rahul then joined the proceedings and added a 50-plus stand with Kohli before getting out against Mitchell Santner for 27(35).
Suryakumar Yadav, who made his World Cup debut, too couldn’t do much as a mix-up with Kohli brought an early end to his stay in the middle. But Kohli remained firm at one end with wickets falling at the other. Ravindra Jadeja gave him good support.
Earlier, Mohammed Shami led India’s recovery in the last 10 overs with a five-wicket haul in his first match of this World Cup.
New Zealand looked set to get somewhere close to, if not beyond, 300 runs during Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra’s 159-run stand that came in just 152 balls. While Mitchell went on to play a rather colossal innings, scoring 130 in 127 balls, New Zealand could score just 54 runs in the last 10 overs and lost six wickets.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first and while India stifled New Zealand for runs in the first 10 overs, Ravindra and Mitchell made India feel the heat in the cool environs of Dharamsala.
The lack of a sixth seamer due to Hardik Pandya being injured and Shardul Thakur being dropped was felt keenly as the batters took spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to the cleaners.
Kuldeep ended up conceding 32 runs in his first three overs which was in stark contrast to how the first 10 overs went. The Indian seamers were relentless in the first 10 overs and Mohammed Shami went on to dismiss Will Young with his first ball of the match in that period.
India were forced to use up all of Jadeja’s overs in the first 30 itself, with the spinner bowling 10 overs on the trot and ending with figures of 0/48.
The partnership between Ravindra and Mitchell eventually went past 150 when Bumrah dropped Mitchell at the boundary and the ball went over for four. The pain finally ended for India in the 34th over with Shami dismissing Ravindra for 75 off 87 balls. Kuldeep then got the wicket of New Zealand captain Tom Latham shortly thereafter but Mitchell soldiered on. He eventually scored his fifth ODI century. The Indians then fought back and New Zealand were all out for 273.
Source: The Business Standard
--Agencies
