India put on a convincing performance as they comfortably defeated the Kiwis by 40 runs.
Ross Taylor played a lone hand as the Kiwis stumbled badly in their chase. Taylor shed his lean patch in the Test series with a fine exhibition of stroke-making.
However, Yuvraj Singh, broke the back of the Kiwis claiming the vital scalps of Williamson and Styris as the Kiwis hurtled towards defeat.
The Kiwi middle order failed to put up a fight as they capitulated in the face of some disciplined stuff from the Indian bowlers. The match was as good as over when Taylor fell in the 1st over of the batting power-play in the 34th over.
Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills did put on a useful partnership towards the end but it only served to lessen the margin of the defeat.
NZ will look to come back hard in the next match at Jaipur whereas India will look to improve upon their performance.
Here we are trying to provide you Post Match Presentation:
Ross Taylor: Vijay and Gambhir batted superbly but Virat was superb. The ball nipped around a bit, we needed to get more wickets at the start, it is a disappointing result but hopefully we can pick ourselves up. Guptill batted well but we lost too many wickets in the middle. In the end Nathan and Mills brought us back but Kohli’s innings took the game away from us. Always important to win the first game to get the momentum but I am confident about picking ourselves up.
Gautam Gambhir: Leading the country for the first time, and winning the game gives a great feeling. All the batsmen chipped in with the runs and I am very happy with Virat’s performance. There was a bit in it for the bowlers, so the gameplan was to just stay in and blunt the bowling in the first few overs. I am taking one game at a time. Ashwin was brilliant with the ball.
Virat Kohli is the MoM for his superb knock of 105.
Virat Kohli: It feels good. I went out there and continued my good form with the bat. I heard that only 6 players have scored back to back hundreds for India, so yes it is a good feeling. Hopefully I can continue in the next few games. I had a kind of a lean patch in Sri Lanka recently but the team-mates and coach backed me. I would like to thank them. I try to probably stop myself if I feel like playing a big shot and enjoy the singles. I have been lucky that we have had strike players in the other end. My role is to bat long and put the team in a good position.
Here we are providing today’s match highlights in pics:
