India outdo Kiwis in 1st ODI

NI Wire

New Delhi

Tue, 03 Mar 2009: 

Breaking two dismissal shows in a row, in the last two Twenty20 matches, Team India finally won the first One-Day of the five-match series against the Kiwis Tuesday by 53 runs (D/L method) at McLean Park, New Zealand.

In a rain-interrupted 38-over game, India won the toss and chose to bat first. Skipper hendra Singh Dhoni with his unbeaten 84 and a well composed Suresh Raina’s 66 powered India to post a mammoth total of 273 for four.

Earlier, Virender Sehwag’s gave a solid start reaching his 34th ODI fifty before falling to Daniel Vettori at individual score of 77.

Chasing a revised target of 278 runs, New Zealand got two early blows to their line-up when Brendon McCullum (0) and Jesse Ryder (11) could not cope with Praveen Kumar's pace.

New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals. The only time it seemed the Kiwis stood a chance of overhauling their score was when Taylor and Martin Guptill added 58 for the third wicket.

Guptill (64) revived the innings and played a sensible knock to raise his well deserved fifty but the heroics weren't enough to make his side float.

Guptill top-scored for New Zealand with 64. The Kiwis could score only 162 runs in a revised target of 216 runs in 28 overs.

For India, Harbhajan Singh claimed three wickets to complete a comprehensive win for the visitors. Indian skipper Dhoni was adjudged the Man-of-the Match for his unbeaten 84.

Teams:

India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt./wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

New Zealand: Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum (wk), Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Kyle Mills, Ian Butler, Iain O'Brien.