Mumbai: Virat Kohli made his 200th ODI even more special with a classy 31st ODI ton against New Zealand but unfortunately it came in losing cause at Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday. India went down by six wickets in the three-match ODI series opener.
Ross Taylor and Tom Latham carried on from where they had left against Board President’s XI at Brabourne stadium on Thursday. Both had scored tons before retiring to set up 33-run win in warm up tie. On Sunday the right hand and left hand combination made the chase of 281 ridiculously easy on what seemed a difficult wicket for strokeplay.
Latham remained unbeaten on 103 (102b, 8x4, 2x6) while Taylor made 95 (100b, 8x4) as both put 200 runs in 187 balls for the fourth wicket to steer their team home with an over to spare.
Earlier, the Indian skipper grafted his way on a slower wicket against a disciplined attack before taking off at the death to help India post a challenging 280/8. He scored 121 runs in 125 balls with nine boundaries and two sixes during his 203 minutes stay at the crease out of total 233 minutes of Indian innings. Kohli came in the fourth over after Shikhar Dhawan nicked left arm pacer Trent Boult (4/35) to wicket-keeper Latham.
India were further reduced to 29/2 with Boult cleaning up Rohit Sharma (20). Boult was lethal in his five-over first spell generating enough bounce and bringing the ball in to trouble batsmen including Kohli. He gave just seven runs in his first five overs taking two wickets.
Kohli gave the desired momentum to innings by welcoming Colin de Grandhomme with two boundaries. His partner Kedar Jadhav 12 (25b) was struggling but he gave Kohli company to do some recovery job before scooping back to left arm spinner Mitchell Santner.
Virat on 29 was dropped by Santner at covers off Grandhomme which proved costly lapse. Dinesh Karthik 37 (47b) was involved in a 73-run partnership with Kohli before top-edging a hook to Munro.
India: R. Sharma b Boult 20, S. Dhawan c Latham b Boult 9, V. Kohli c Boult b Southee 121, K.M Jadhav c & b Santner 12, D. Karthik c Munro b Southee 37, M.S Dhoni c Guptill b Boult 25, H. Pandya c Williamson b Boult 16, B. Kumar c Nicholls b Southee 26, K. Jadhav (not out) 0. Extras (lb4, w10) 14. Total (8 wickets; 50 overs) 280.
FoW: 1-16, 2-29, 3-71, 4-144, 5-201, 6-238, 7-270, 8-280.
Bowling: Southee 10-0-73-3, Boult 10-1-35-4, Milne 9-0-62-0, Santner 10-0-41-1, de Grandhomme 4-0-27-0, Munro 7-0-38-0.
New Zealand: M. Guptill c Karthik b Pandya 32, C. Munro c Karthik b Bumrah 28, K. Williamson c Jadhav b Kuldeep Yadav 6, R. Taylor c Chahal bt Kumar 95, T. Latham not out 103, H. Nicholls not out 4. Extras (lb-11, w-5) 16. Total (for 4 wickets in 49 overs) 284
FoW: 1-48, 2-62, 3-80, 4-280.
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 10-0-56-1, Jasprit Bumrah 9-0-56-1, Kuldeep Yadav 10-0-64-1, Hardik Pandya 10-0-46-1, Yazuvendra Chahal 10-0-51-0.
