India vs New Zealand 2019: Unnoticed things from the first ODI
After being victorious on the recently-concluded tour of Australia, the Indian team played its first match of the tour to New Zealand .
The hosts won the toss and elected to bat first. Ambati Rayudu and Kuldeep Yadav were picked in India's XI while Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Karthik had to sit out.
India were bowling first and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami were asked to start the proceedings from both ends. Shami didn't disappoint his captain as he dismissed both the openers in the first few overs itself.
Yuzvendra Chahal then dismissed the in-form Ross Taylor and dangerous-looking Tom Latham in the 15th and 19th over respectively. Meanwhile, Kedar Jadhav was also handed over the bowl and the man with a golden arm once again did what he has been doing in the past, as he got the wicket of Henry Nicholls.
Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav then did the rest of the damage as he dismissed half-centurion Kane Williamson and Doug Bracewell in the same over as Kiwis were eventually dismissed for the score of 156.
India's innings was interrupted by a break as the sun hampered the vision of the players for a while. This costed them one over as well and the game was reduced to 49 overs with the revised target of 156 runs.
This, in due course, resulted in a lapse of concentration as well and India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli then steadily built a match-winning partnership of 90 runs.
However, Kohli was dismissed a few overs before victory but it was Shikhar Dhawan, who along with Ambati Rayudu, helped India cross the finish line. In the end, India won the match by 8 wickets with more than 15 overs to spare.
Here are some things which you might have missed while watching the first ODI:
1) Shikhar Dhawan became the second fastest Indian to score 5000 runs
Shikhar Dhawan has become one of the most important prospects of the Indian team. Ever since the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, there has been no looking back in his career. The 33-year old is currently one of the best openers in white ball cricket.
The Delhi-born batsman achieved the milestone of scoring 5000 runs in ODIs on Wednesday against the Kiwis. The southpaw achieved this milestone in only 118 innings, and thus became the second fastest Indian to achieve this feat.
He also became the third fastest cricketer to have this record after Hashim Amla and Virat Kohli. Shikhar Dhawan, after achieving this milestone, surpassed Sourav Ganguly (126), MS Dhoni (135) and Gautam Gambhir (135) who are now ranked at third and joint fourth position respectively.