Since his retirement from Test cricket and T20Is, Virat Kohli seems to have found a new zeal and zest in ODI cricket. Before Sunday, he had scores of 74 not out, 135, 102 and 65 not out in his last four ODI innings and the hunger for runs continued in the New Year too.
Kohli, once again, showed that he takes immense pleasure in chasing down targets. In the first ODI of the five-match series against New Zealand, Kohli struck 93 to set up India’s four-wicket win at Vadodara. But there was quite some drama before India finished the game. Kyle Jamieson almost did the trick for New Zealand as the pacer opened up the game in seven balls as he got rid of the set Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and comeback man Shreyas Iyer.
When it looked as if India were in cruise mode, they suddenly felt the pressure of getting 59 runs off 53 balls with five wickets in hand and two new batters at the crease. A match which dominated by India suddenly seemed to move a bit on the other side. But Harshit Rana, who made a 23-ball 29, and a hobbling Washington Sundar played their part in it, before the dependable KL Rahul put the finishing touches, hitting debutant Kristian Clarke for 4, 4, 6 to seal victory with six balls to spare.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill got India off to a modest start before Rohit, who did the bulk of the scoring, fell to Jamieson for 26. Kohli joined skipper Gill, who was quite subdued in the early part of his innings, and the duo steadied the ship.
Kohli took charge of the proceedings and looked least perturbed by what was happening around him. He went about his task in his nonchalant way.
The duo added 118 for the second wicket before Gill (56) was done in by India-origin spinner Adithya Ashok. Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, who was coming back to the side after an injury, took the score to 234 before Jamieson decided to add some spice to the curry. Kohli’s 93 came off 91 balls with eight fours and a six, while Iyer made a 47-ball 49 with four fours and a six. Jamieson took four for 41.
Earlier, put into bat, New Zealand rode on a century opening stand to reach 300 for eight. Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls laid the platform with measured half-centuries in a 117-run opening stand. Harshit Rana got rid of both of them to peg the Kiwi charge. Nicholls was caught behind by KL Rahul after making a 69-ball 62 with eight hits to the fence.
Rana then castled Conway after the southpaw had made 56 off 67 balls with six fours and a six.
After that the visitors lost ground as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Daryl Mitchell kept one end up and kept the boat from capsizing. His industrious 84 came off 71 balls with five fours and three sixes.
At the end of the innings, it was left to debutant Kristian Clarke to get a crucial unbeaten 24 runs off 17 balls with three fours which helped New Zealand reach 300.
Siraj, making his comeback to the Indian team, was the standout seamer on view. Rana bowled well in patches, as did Prasidh Krishna but they didn’t look threatening. There was some concern for India, though, when Washington Sundar walked off midway through the innings and did not return.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand: Devon Conway b Rana 56, Henry Nicholls c Rahul b Rana 62, Will Young c Rahul b Siraj 12, daryl Mitchell lbw Krishna 84, Glenn Phillips c Iyer b Yadav 12, Mitchell Hay b Krishna 18, Michael Bracewell run out (Iyer) 16, Zak Foulkes b Siraj 1, Kristian Clarke (not out) 24, Kyle Jamieson (not out) 8; Extras: (W7) 7. Total: (For 8 in 50 overs) 300.
Fall of wickets: 1-117, 2-126, 3-146, 4-170, 5-198, 6-237, 7-239, 8-281.
Bowling: Mohammed Siraj 8-0-40-2, Harshit Rana 10-0-65-2, Washington Sundar 5-0-27-0, Prasidh Krishna 9-0-60-2, Kuldeep Yadav 9-0-52-1, Ravindra Jadeja 9-0-56-0.
India: Rohit Sharma c Bracewell b Jamieson 26, Shubman Gill c Phillips b Ashok 56, Virat Kohli c Bracewell b Jamieson 93, Shreyas Iyer b Jamieson 49, Ravindra Jadeja c Clarke b Jamieson 4, KL Rahul (not out) 29, Harshit Rana c Hay b Clarke 29, Washington Sundar (not out) 7; Extras: (LB4, W9) 13. Total: (For six wickets in 49 overs) 306.
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-157, 3-234, 4-239, 5-242, 6-279.
Bowling: Kyle Jamieson 10-1-41-4, Zak Foulkes 10-0-49-0, Adithya Ashok 6-0-55-1, Kristian Clarke 10-0-73-1, Michael Bracewell 8-0-56-0, Glenn Phillips 4-0-21-0, Daryl Mitchell 1-0-7-0.
