New Zealand defeated India by six wickets in the first ODI at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, courtesy a brilliant partnership between Ross Taylor and Tom Latham.
Virat Kohli scored his 31st ODI century and surpassed Ricky Ponting on the all-time list of most hundreds by a batsman. However, his ton went in vain, as Tom Latham scored his fourth ODI century to guide his team to a comprehensive six-wicket win over the hosts in the first ODI. Taylor and Latham shared a brilliant 200-run fourth wicket partnership.
India posted 280/8 in 50 overs in the first innings, courtesy a brilliant century by the Indian skipper. Kohli scored 121 off 125 deliveries and was the only Indian batsman to go past 50 runs. Helpful contributions were made by Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni, as the two scored 37 and 25, respectively. Trent Boult ripped through the Indian top order, as he picked up the Indian openers early on in the innings.
However, Indian bowlers couldn’t capitalise on the start, as New Zealand was 80/3 while chasing when Tom Latham came into bat and partnered Ross Taylor at the crease. The two middle-order batsmen went on to share a 200-runs partnership with Latham went on to score an amazing century, whereas, Taylor falling short by five runs of a well-deserved century.
It was a rare loss for the Indian team under Virat Kohli. Being a three-match ODI series, the next match will be a must-win contest for the Indian team. India last lost a home series against South Africa in 2015.
Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly feels that this loss will teach Virat Kohli and he will learn a lot from it.
“Kohli will get better. He will lose games once in a while even in India. He is not superhuman. No captain has gone through without losing games and series in India. You look at MS Dhoni’s last one year as captain; he lost in Bangladesh. South Africa came and beat us at home. We were then beaten by West Indies in the World T20 semi-final,”
“He will lose, he is a human. There are good oppositions. New Zealand’s middle order, unlike Australia, is going to test the Indian bowlers. This series is going to be a good workout for India. It will test India and eventually, it will be good for them.”
Ganguly also feels that Kohli should have given Jadhav a chance when Latham and Taylor were able to play the two wrist spinners comfortably.
“I think the Indian team was a bit flat during the later part of New Zealand’s chase. They [Latham and Taylor] played Kuldeep very well. Latham swept him well, after getting settled he started reverse sweeping him well, from that point of view, I thought Virat Kohli could have done a little bit better. But that’s the way it is, he will learn. You have to give credit to New Zealand, very rarely seen any side in the last two years play spin very well against India,”
He also praised Kohli and rated this as one of his best ODI hundreds,
“Kohli played a fantastic innings today. At one stage at half-time when I had a look at the pitch, I thought it was one of his best knocks. Latham and Taylor played even better and outplayed Kohli, players from this team and from outside should learn from Kohli how to adapt to conditions. On a wicket which had a bit more bounce and assistance to fast bowlers, he changed his game. That’s the trait of a great player,”