Team India's brilliant performance on the New Zealand tour continues as the team has made a blockbuster start to the five match ODI series. The Indian team defeated New Zealand by five wickets in the rain affected first ODI. After capturing the T20I series, Team India also started the ODI series in New Zealand in a very explosive manner. Team India handed New Zealand a crushing defeat by five wickets in the first ODI thanks to a brilliant innings from Virat Kohli. With this victory, the Indian team has taken a one to zero lead in the five match ODI series.
In this rain affected match, New Zealand batted first and was bundled out for just one hundred eighty five runs in forty point two overs. In response, Team India chased down the revised target of one hundred forty three runs on the back of Virat Kohli's blazing innings of seventy four runs from fifty one balls. The match had to be stopped several times due to rain, giving Team India a DLS target of one hundred forty three runs. Team India achieved this target in just twenty two point four overs.
Played at Eden Park in Auckland, the Indian bowlers put up a brilliant and disciplined performance in this match. Anshul Kamboj bowled economically in his ten overs, conceding just twenty two runs and claiming two batsmen. For this stellar performance, he was awarded the Player of the Match. Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh conceded seventy runs in his ten overs and bagged four crucial wickets. Gurnoor Brar also dismissed three batsmen, contributing heavily to the bowling attack.
On the other hand, New Zealand's batting performance was extremely poor and disappointing. None of their batsmen could get close to a half century. Opener Tim Seifert scored the most runs for New Zealand, playing an innings of thirty eight runs from forty three balls. Glenn Phillips contributed thirty runs and Daryl Mitchell added thirty eight runs, but the team failed to reach a big total.
After restricting New Zealand to one hundred eighty five runs, Team India's chase got off to a slightly poor start. Former captain and opening batsman Rohit Sharma returned to the pavilion without opening his account on the very last ball of the first over, while he fell victim to fast bowler Kyle Jamieson. After this, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli took charge of the Indian innings and batted very cautiously against the Kiwi bowlers.
Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli shared a brilliant and solid partnership of one hundred thirteen runs for the second wicket. During this time, the Indian team reached a very strong position and it seemed that the team would easily win the match by nine wickets. However, rain once again increased the excitement of the match. Play had to be stopped twice due to rain. When the match resumed after the second spell of rain, India received a revised DLS target of one hundred forty three runs in thirty two overs to win.
Meanwhile, captain Shubman Gill was dismissed after scoring thirty seven runs from fifty six balls. After Gill's wicket fell at the team score of one hundred fourteen, the Indian batting order stumbled a bit. Immediately after that, Virat Kohli, who was batting brilliantly, also returned to the pavilion. Kohli played a magnificent innings of seventy four runs from fifty one balls. His aggressive innings included one six and thirteen fine boundaries.
After the dismissal of Virat Kohli, the Indian team suffered continuous setbacks. Axar Patel was also dismissed without opening his account at the score of one hundred twenty four runs. After him, Shreyas Iyer couldn't stay long at the crease either, getting out as the fifth wicket for fifteen runs from thirteen balls at the score of one hundred thirty six. Due to falling wickets at regular intervals, the match started looking quite tricky.
In such a difficult and high pressure time, KL Rahul and Naman Dhir took complete responsibility on their shoulders. Both batsmen wisely steered the team to the winning target without losing any further wickets. India scored one hundred forty three runs for the loss of five wickets in twenty two point four overs and won the match by five wickets. KL Rahul remained not out on three runs and Naman Dhir on five runs, successfully guiding the team home.