Against the backdrop of questions over the future and relevance of 50-over cricket, India and New Zealand today played out something of an old-school ODI in the first international men’s game at Vadodara’s Kotambi Stadium.
New Zealand, put into bat, made 300 and India chased that total down in 49 overs on the back of fifties to Virat Kohli (93 off 91 balls), an innings in which he became the second-highest run-getter in international cricket, and Shubman Gill (56 off 71) for the loss of six wickets to make the match an entertaining one for the packed house.
You can be excused for viewing this series of three ODIs, sandwiched between India’s T20 series against South Africa last month, and the World Cup next month, a bit like stopping for a tea break in the middle of a sprint. But for India’s top four in this match, there is plenty of relevance given that Rohit Sharma and Kohli only play this format, Gill was in dire need of runs and Shreyas Iyer was playing his first international in almost three months.
Gill won his first toss since October – and just his sixth overall, in 17 internationals in charge – and keeping in mind the expected dew, opted to put the Black Caps into bat. Runs were there to be made, but as the New Zealand batsmen found out, you had to grind for them.
Devon Conway made 56 off 67 balls, Henry Nicholls got 62 off 69 and Daryl Mitchell extended his penchant for scoring runs off Indian bowling attacks with 84 from 71 balls, but a total of 300 was never going to stretch this Indian batting order, which welcomed back its best No 4, Iyer.
Conway and Nicholls put on 117 for the opening wicket in 21.4 overs, but once Harshit Rana snapped that partnership by dismissing both openers in a sprightly second spell, another big stand failed to emerge. Barring Mitchell, no other Black Caps player made it to 25 there on, with the debutant Kristian Clarke’s unbeaten 24 off 17 balls the next best.
There were two wickets each to Rana, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna while Kuldeep Yadav took one and Iyer accounted for New Zealand’s captain Michael Bracewell with an accurate direct hit from long-on.
The platform was set by the openers, but Mitchell’s innings was the fulcrum around which New Zealand got to 300. He had the toughest job. Wickets had fallen, a very good start had been negated, there were three spinners to content with and the surface was sluggish. But Mitchell loves Indian bowling, and the experienced allrounder gauged the conditions well and kept the runs ticking. Even fractional errors in length were powerfully swatted away to the boundary, and this innings from Mitchell, while not a massive one, was one he can look back at with satisfaction.
The problem for New Zealand was that nobody supported Mitchell, barring the rookie, Clarke. Glenn Phillips spooned a catch to point off Kuldeep; Mitchell Hay played all over a seam-up delivery from Prasidh that jagged in; Bracewell chanced Iyer’s arm on a second run; and Zak Foulkes got too cute against Siraj and was bowled. Clarke hit three fours in his 17-ball innings on debut which got the score to 300/8.
Rohit struggled to get going, and then just as he started to look ominous – a pick-up six off Kyle Jamieson was superb – he fell mistimed a lofted drive to mid-off on 26. Gill, meanwhile, was subdued until the 13th over which began with a lofted six off Adithya Ashok over long-on. Two fours in the span of three balls, one straight past the stumps and the other pulled past fine leg, had Kohli purring almost immediately on arrival at the crease.
India’s 100 was up in the 17th over, Kohli’s fifty needed 44 balls and by this time the outcome was beyond doubt. Kohli crossed 28,000 international runs in the process, and later went past Kumar Sangakkara to sit at second on the list of all-time run-getters, behind only Sachin Tendulkar.
Gill also made a half-century, a solid 56 off 71 deliveries, which ended when he chipped a drive into the covers off the leggie, Ashok. Out strode Iyer for his comeback innings, and in quick time he was into his groove, using his feet to drive the spinners down the ground.
Kohli moved into the eighties with a shimmied six off Ashok, and looked set for another ODI hundred before he was cut short seven runs before the landmark. Iyer then departed for 49, after which Ravindra Jadeja needlessly got out in the same over, but Rana clubbed some handy boundaries in the company of KL Rahul to ease the chase.
The allrounder – promoted ahead of Washington Sundar – made 29 off 23 balls, and Rahul finished the chase with an unbeaten 29 from 21 balls.
