Shreyas Iyer’s valiant knock goes in vain as New Zealand clinch series opener

After a successful outing in the T20I series, Team India suffered an early stutter in the ODIs as their bowlers fell short in the curtain-raiser with the hosts comfortably chasing down a mammoth 307. Despite a decent show with the bat, things went downhill for the visitors as the New Zealand captain, coupled with Tom Latham, led the show for the Kiwis.

New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl first on a surface that was pretty flat in nature with bare minimum drift early in the contest. The Indian openers were off to a fine start as Shikhar Dhawan linked adeptly with Shubman Gill and got the scoreboard rolling before the hosts could get themselves some reward.

Despite the decent start, things got a bit haywire for the Men in Blue in the middle as Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav departed in quick succession. However, holding on dearly to the firepower to arrive, Shreyas Iyer took things into his own hands and led the Indian unit in fine fashion while Sanju Samson played the apt partner.

However, India preserved the best for the last as Washington Sundar came out all guns blazing, taking the Kiwi bowlers to the cleaners. In his sojourn at the crease, he surpassed the long-standing records of Kapil Dev and Suresh Raina and became the player with the fastest thirty-plus score against New Zealand in the latter’s backyard. He stayed unbeaten for 37 from just 16 balls while India finished at 306 for 7.

The Men in Blue had a pretty fine start for themselves with the ball in their hands as they claimed three important wickets before the hosts could make some significant ground. But once Kane Williamson settled down, he provided the platform for Tom Latham to go for the blitz and the Kiwi wicket-keeper did the honours without any reservation.

A staggering stand of 221 runs for the fourth wicket took away the game from India as Dhawan’s various bowling avenues were blunted effectively by an incisive Tom Latham while Kane Williamson took a front-row seat to the madness spawned by his fellow teammate.

All eyes now shift to Seddon Park for the second ODI that is slated to be played on Sunday where Dhawan and his band of blokes will be desperate to turn the tide around, while New Zealand will be eyeing a series win.