Virat Kohli's men register maiden win over New Zealand in T20 cricket by a 53-run margin in opening encounter of three-match series at Kotla
Ashish Nehra announcing his retirement and India's dismal (5-0) T20 record against New Zealand had made the first T20 game of the three match series of some relevance which otherwise looked like fill-up tour exercise. India ticked both those boxes by winning the game with 53 runs and giving Nehra the last over of the game as it turned out to be perfect final outing for him in the blues. At the toss New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson asked his counterpart Virat Kohli to bat taking into account the dew factor. Kohli on the other hand named six bowlers including all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the eleven suggesting to put the onus on the batsmen by not giving them the cushion of an extra one.
Indian openers Rohit Sharma (left) and Shikhar Dhawan put on a 158-run opening stand against New Zealand in the first T20 at the Ferozshah Kotla stadium in New Delhi yesterday. Pic/PTI
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Proving that their skipper made the correct call, openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma added 156 runs for the first wicket. This turned out to be the highest partnership for any wicket for India in the T20 format. To begin with, it was Dhawan who looked in ominous touch, though helped by some poor catching by Mitchell Santner who dropped him at point when he was on 8. Cashing on that chance he would go on to make 80 showing a wide range of shots and to every part of the ground. Sharma also made a similar score as his left-handed partner. Though he initially struggled to time the ball but got it right towards the latter part of his innings.
When Pandya sent in at three to up the scoring rate failed, the skipper along with MS Dhoni did manage to take the team to 202 with some good power-hitting in the final stages. More than the bowling it was the fielding department where New Zealand looked out of sorts.
The hosts however despite of little lapses in the field looked a far better unit. In Yuzvendra Chahal's first over Hardik Pandya set the tone with a full-stretch diving catch on long off to dismiss Kiwi opener Martin Guptill. This was soon followed up by a perfect yorker from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to Colin Munro and New Zealand never recovered after those blows. At one stage they were seven down with not even a hundred on board waiting for the formalities to be completed.
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