New Zealand hosted India for the first ODI of the five-match series in Napier and got dominated by the visitors.
New Zealand won the toss and Kane Williamson chose to bat first. However, the decision proved to be a horror one, as they kept losing wickets regularly. Mohammad Shami began the rout by sending back both the openers, Martin Guptill and Colin Munro back for single-digit scores. Shami also completed 100 wickets in ODIs, becoming the fastest Indian to reach the landmark, in his 56th ODI.
Then Kane Williamson held up one end with a brilliant 64 in 81 balls with 7 fours, but Indian spin twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal ran through the middle order. Chahal removed Taylor (24) and Latham (11), while Kuldeep accounted for Williamson, Bracewell, Ferguson, and Boult. Kedar Jadhav chipped in with the wicket of Henry Nicholls.
New Zealand was bowled out for 157 runs in 38 overs.
India got 9 overs to bat before lunch and scored 41 runs, but lost Rohit Sharma (11) in the first over bowled by Doug Bracewell on the return, caught by Guptill in slips. The teams went off the field for some time due to the sunlight causing discomfort to the batsmen, in seeing the ball.
When the play resumed, one over was deducted from the Indian innings, with the target being reset to 156 runs and Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan continued dominating the Kiwi bowling with ease.
Kohli fell for 45 to Ferguson, caught down the leg side by Latham. Dhawan continued on to make his first fifty after nine innings in international cricket. Dhawan remained unbeaten on 75 with 6 fours in 103 balls with Rayudu keeping him company on 13*.
In the end, the chase proved to be a walk in the park for the Indian team, despite best efforts from Lockie Ferguson, Doug Bracewell, and co. India won the match by 8 wickets and took the lead in the series.
BRIEF SCORES:
NZ 157 (K WILLIAMSON 64; K YADAV 4/39) lost to IND 156/2 (S DHAWAN 75*; D BRACEWELL 1/23) by 8 wickets by DLS method
