Reportedly ross taylor hit his 21st ODI hundred while Henry Nicholls and tom Latham smashed aggressive half-centuries as new zealand chased down 348 against india to take a 1-0 lead in the first match of the 3-ODI series in Hamilton on Wednesday. Meanwhile this was New Zealand's highest successful run chase in ODIs. In 2007, they had gunned down 347 against australia, incidentally also in Hamilton.
Furthermore new zealand openers martin guptill and Henry Nicholls were very watchful to start with. Without Kane Williamson, the Black Caps had to be careful and both Guptill and Nicholls were happy to run the ones and twos for the better part of their partnership. Perhaps in fact, Guptill had hit only one boundary in his knock of 32 by the time he fell to shardul thakur in the 16th over. tom Blundell was done in by kuldeep Yadav's guile and KL Rahul's superb glovework in the 20th over but thereafter, india did not much to smile about.
Moreover ross taylor joined forces with Nicholls and the two added 62 in a steadying partnership before Virat Kohli's stunning direct-hit caught Nicholls short of the crease for 78. And then came the tom Latham storm. And for india, this is the third time in a row that they have lost the first match of a bilateral ODI series. Against west indies as well as australia, india had bounced back 0-1 to win the series.
