New Zealand beat India by 7 wickets in 1st T20I

Posted by on Feb 26, 2009 in Cricket

An overconfident India came cropper in their first assignment of their tour of New Zealand. Carried away by the tiny ground at the AMI Stadium in Christchurch, the Indian batsmen were tempted to hit big most of the time and could only post a disappointing 162 on the board. Vettori had asked them to bat first having won the toss. New Zealand had little trouble in chasing down the target which they did losing just 3 wickets and with 7 balls to spare. It was the first match for Dhoni’s boys in their new jerseys which was dark blue in colour and somewhat reminding of the Indian team in the 1992 World Cup.

The Indian innings was entertaining though with as many as 13 sixes disappearing out of the ground. Virender Sehwag and Yusuf Pathan infact hit three sixes in a row! The ground like I said was really very wierd, it was like a rectangular match box and the Indian batsmen felt like they were playing in an exhibition match and had to pay the penalty for taking the opposition lightly. The top scorer for India was Suresh Raina, who made a responsible unbeaten 61 from 43 balls with 2 fours and 5 sixes. Without his innings, India would have struggled to have made a match. At one stage, Team India was reduced to a pathetic 61 for 5 in the 8th over.

Skipper Daniel Vettori showed that he was one of the best bowlers in the world when it comes to Twenty20 Cricket. The left arm spinner gave away just 18 runs in his 4 overs besides foxing Yuvraj Singh with an arm ball. Yuvraj and MS Dhoni failed to click for their team.

The Kiwis rode home thanks to an unbeaten half century from Brendon McCullum (56 not out from 49 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes). He was well supported by Ross Taylor (31 with 3 sixes) and Oram (29 with 3 fours and 2 sixes). The star of the innings though was Martin Guptill, who overcame his struggles early on to provide the necessary momentum with his 41 from 28 balls which had 4 fours and 3 sixes. The positives for India were Zaheer Khan (1/20 in 4 overs) and Harbhajan Singh (1 for 19 in 4 overs). The Man of the Match award went to Brendon McCullum.  The second and final T20I is on the the 27th at Wellington.

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