New Zealand lean on experience to clinch Taylor-made win over India
Ross Taylor felt the return of some familiar faces helped New Zealand record a stunning ODI victory over India on Wednesday.
Taylor put on a masterclass as his unbeaten 109 helped New Zealand – playing in their first one-dayer since the dramatic defeat to England in the Cricket World Cup final last year – to a four-wicket triumph in Hamilton.
The result came after a 5-0 defeat to India in the Twenty20 series, though Taylor believes having added experience in the one-day squad was a decisive factor in a high-scoring contest.
"We lost in a clean sweep in the T20 series, but all we talked about was the new personnel coming in – there was no hangover for them," Taylor told a news conference.
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"I'm sure it must play on their mind a little bit, they're human and towards the end we lost a couple of wickets but at the same time, our last ODI was a World Cup final.
"A lot of guys have played in a lot of pressure situations. There's probably more experience in this side than the T20 side and I think that showed. But it's only one game, there's still a long way to go in the series.
"The older you get the better you deal with different situations. I had a lot of help out there.
"It's small margins, it could have been a different result but that's cricket, it's why we love the game. Those little things went our way today and in the T20 series they didn't."
India's 347 at @seddonpark is the highest total the team have chased in an ODI. Watch the highlights here | https://t.co/4X8QVMuuLb #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/JsNxEulTDp — BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 5, 2020
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Without injured captain Kane Williamson, stand-in skipper Tom Latham put India into bat, but the decision appeared to have backfired when the tourists reached 347-4.
However, inspired by Taylor – who was ably supported by Henry Nicholls (78) and Latham (69) – the Black Caps managed their highest successful run chase in ODI cricket.
"It's the tough thing about playing in some of these grounds in New Zealand, you don't know what a par total is," Taylor said.
"I think there were some great contributions through the whole order and even the bowlers, because it looked like India could get 360, 370 at one stage so it was nice for us to just keep it under that 350 psychological mark.
"If anything, what made that chase a little easier for us was left-right combinations. We knew there was one short boundary and we were able to use that to our advantage."