India vs New Zealand, 1st ODI: Tom Latham, Ross Taylor help Kiwis outclass India in Mumbai

Only South African run-machine AB de Villiers has scored a century in his 200th ODI until Sunday. He had his Royal Challengers Bangalore captain and close friend Virat Kohli join him in this unique feat when the Indian skipper scored a masterly 121 on a Wankhede pitch that was certainly not flat. Kohli’s knock that had less than 40 per cent of the runs coming in boundaries – 9 fours and 2 sixes – helped India to a challenging 280/8 in the first ODI against New Zealand after winning the toss.

The visitors had to chase a record total to win at the Wankhede, greater than the 277/4 MS Dhoni’s men scored to lift the 2011 World Cup.

And, they did it comfortably by six wickets with six balls to spare after having slumped to 80/3, courtesy a fourth-wicket partnership of 200 runs in 187 deliveries between Ross Taylor (95) and Tom Latham (103*).

It was not an easy proposition for the Kiwis on a pitch where stroke-making was not easy even for the Indians earlier in the day.

In Taylor and Latham, New Zealand had their match-winners as the two went about the run-chase in a calculative manner that would have won them some silent Indian admirers. There were no flashy strokes. Latham and Taylor did not look to force the pace. They swept the spinners well to negate the turn that would otherwise have been dangerous, bringing back memories of England’s Graham Gooch sweeping India out of the World Cup semifinal at the very venue 30 years ago.

There was the odd reverse hit from Latham, who posted his fourth ODI hundred, and cut shot from Taylor. But there were plenty of singles and twos that the first 150 runs of their partnership from 152 deliveries had only 44 runs from boundaries, all along the ground.

They preserved their energy in tiring conditions to put together the highest ever fourth-wicket partnership in New Zealand ODI history and steer their side home for a 1-0 lead with two to go.

New Zealand needed their most-experienced batsman and one of their better players of spin, Taylor to negotiate the Indian bowlers while Latham took the confidence from his 2016 success here. They never gave up in energy-sapping conditions while inflicting a sixth defeat on the Indians this year in 24 ODIs to check their otherwise dominant 2017 that has seen them win 17 matches.

New Zealand may have rued playing only one spinner in Mitchell Santner on the pitch where employing a fourth medium-pacer was being too extravagant, let alone using five as the Kiwis did. Left-arm pacer Trent Boult was the best of the lot, rattling the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in his opening spell that read 5-1-7-2.

Boult caught Dhawan unawares with one that rose sharply and took the edge on the way to wicket-keeper Latham while Sharma, having hooked Tim Southee for back-to-back sixes over fine-leg fielder, attempted a reckless stroke only to be bowled.

Kohli too was shaky to start with, beaten by Boult while he also survived a chance when on 29, he drove Colin de Grandhomme to covers, where Santner floored a straight forward chance.

From here on, Kohli did not look disturbed. Having also seen No. 4 Kedar Jadhav fall to a tame dismissal off Santner, Kohli took it upon himself to lead the way. He found a suitable ally in comeback man Dinesh Karthik as the two put together 73 for the fourth wicket. From a worrisome 71/3, India reached a comfortable 144/4.

Small partnerships – 57 with MS Dhoni for the fifth wicket and 32 with Hardik Pandya for the next – with Kohli rotating the strike was the highlight of the middle overs as New Zealand, ruing the absence of a second spinner, gave short spells to their medium-pacers.

Boult apart, Santner bowled tidily but could not stop Kohli in reaching his 31st ODI ton to move to clear second position for most ODI hundreds scored. He is 18 short of Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49, which at the rate the 28-year-old Delhi-ite is going scoring centuries will be felled in a matter of time.

Kohli curbed his attacking instincts as he knew that it was important for the team that he stayed in the middle. He did not look to score boundaries and was content with rotating the strike. The odd boundary came from his blade and also from his partners, what with Hardik Pandya playing his trade-mark six over long-on off Santner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar slapping Adam Milne over long-on that made Kohli bow in front of him as a mark of respect.

When he fell in the last over holing to long-on after slamming Milne the previous delivery straight into the press box glass for a six, Kohli had done more than his bit and marked his milestone Test in a memorable way.

More rewarding for Kohli would have been a victory in his landmark ODI, but his bowlers did not complement his batting effort. There seemed to be many open spaces on the field when Latham and Taylor batted and boundaries were leaked due to some poor fielding efforts.

New Zealand had a brisk start with new opening pair of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro sharing 48 in 9.3 overs. Guptill struggled for his 32 while Kane Williamson fell to an extravagant shot off Kuldeep Yadav for six.

Karthik made his return to ODIs memorable on the outfield too, picking up two catches, one running backwards to dismiss Munro and another covering quite a distance from the mid-wicket boundary to hold on to a Martin Guptill offering.

The fourth-wicket duo of Ross Taylor and Tom Latham, both of whom scored centuries in their last warm-up at CCI three days ago, repaired the early damage and gave the Kiwis the belief of winning.