NZ v IND, 1st ODI, 2022-23: Latham's belligerent 145*, Williamson's steady 94* take NZ home
New Zealand vs India, 1st ODI, Top Performances: Tom Latham-Kane Williamson's 221-run stand, Shikhar Dhawan-Shubman Gill's 124-run stand and Lockie Ferguson's 3-59 are top performances. New Zealand beat India in 1st ODI and lead series by 1-0.
Brief Scores: New Zealand 309/3 (Latham 145*, Williamson 94*, Malik 2/66) beat India 306/7 (Iyer 80, Dhawan 72, Ferguson 3/59) by seven wickets
Player of the Match: Tom Latham - 145*(104)
After a rain-affected three-match T20I series where visitors India earned the series by a 1-0 margin against hosts New Zealand, both teams with an aim of preparing for the upcoming ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 locked horns for the first of the three-match ODI series at the Eden Park in Auckland on Friday.
In New Zealand, India have won just two bilateral One Day International (ODI) series while the Blackcaps have won 5 series; two bilateral series have ended as drawn between these sides in the southern hemisphere.
Lack of wicket-taking bowlers and poor fielding cost India another game
It seemed to be the same story for India as has been of late irrespective of format, as their bowlers weren’t able to keep the pressure on the opponents for longer periods and the lack of wicket-taking bowlers meant that the set batters from the opponent sides were never out of the game in any phase.
This issue was aggravated by some poor fielding which too translated into pressure easing off on the batters as they were able to change strike comfortably, and ended up getting some easy boundaries in the process. With the next ODI world Cup in less than a year from now, those departments need to be sorted out soon.
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India bowlers have no answer against some fiery batting from New Zealand, particularly Tom Latham
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson on winning the toss opted to take the field on a good-looking batting surface. India presented two debut caps to the pace duo - Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh - while New Zealand added Adam Milne in the playing eleven as James Neesham was suffering from a slight niggle ahead of the fixture.
The opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill put up a solid 124-run partnership, with Gill managing his fourth ODI half-century, while Dhawan notched up his 39th fifty before New Zealand fought back hard with wickets at regular intervals to restrict India to 210/4 in 40 overs. But with some dynamic quickfire knocks from Shreyas Iyer (80 off 76), Sanju Samson (36 off 38) and Washington Sundar (37 off 16) propelled India to 306/7 from their allotted 50 overs.
Chasing 307, New Zealand did