Black Caps pacer Trent Boult was wrecker-in-chief with 4-33.
In their first warm-up match, the New Zealand side must have gained heaps of confidence after beating the Indian side who are favorites to win the upcoming World Cup in England.
The Kiwis restricted the star-studded Indian batting order with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and MS Dhoni to a mere 179 in 39.2 overs, thanks to a timely cameo by Ravindra Jadeja as he scored 54 off 50 balls with 6 boundaries and 2 maximums.
Kiwi pacer Trent Boult was wrecker-in-chief as his figure read 4-33 in 6.2 overs at an economy of 5.21. While talking to ICC about the ball swinging in the game against the Men in Blue, Boult said, “Nice to see it swinging around a little bit. I'd love to expect that everywhere, some good wickets around the country. It's going to be a good challenge, but us as a bowling unit, we're definitely looking forward to it, but we'll take some confidence out of today.”
"But yeah, the biggest challenge will be when it's not swinging and not nipping around a little bit. Then how do we take wickets? So, we'll look at that," he added.
When asked about the team’s approach in the upcoming showpiece event, the Blackcaps fast bowler said, “We want to be as aggressive as we can to try and get into any team's batting order, so we know if we get two or three wickets at the top of the order, it puts a lot of pressure on the opposition. That is the basic plan, and for me, it's about pitching the ball up and swinging the ball around as much as it can.”
The Blackcaps now take on West Indies in their second warm-up match on May 28 at Bristol before their tournament opener at against Sri Lanka on June 1 at Cardiff.
(With ICC inputs)