Amid tights securities in and around the ground due to a political protest just 500 metres away from the playing area, the match started at 9:30 am with Mumbai team winning the toss and asking New Zealand to bat first on a green carpet.
The New Zealand openers seemed to be comfortable with the ‘Home Like’ pitch and Guptill decided to exploit it from the first over with a six to kick off the innings. The New Zealand experienced batsmen aimed to thicken the Mumbai bowlers by exerting pressure at the start but meanwhile, Guptill gifted his wicket to Sandhu by following the ball outside of stumps and edging it to the wicketkeeper. It was a long walk back for Guptill, Williamson joined Latham in the middle taking charge to run the further proceedings.
Williamson and Latham took their time to settle down a bit but even Williamson was not able to deny gifts from Mumbai team. He was bashing the inexperienced bowlers and was not reluctant to step out of the crease at times. The dual change for Mumbai failed and the captain decided to sideline the young bowlers.
The gamble to bring in Sandhu just before the lunch worked for Mumbai as Williamson was dismissed the same way as Guptill after scoring a half century. It was probably the biggest relief for Mumbai as he was looking good for a big innings but maybe it was the appetite for food which forced Williamson to chase the ball presenting his wicket to Sandhu.
New Zealand was 117/2 at lunch with Sandhu the only wicket-taker for Mumbai.
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