Virat Kohli was at the centre stage. He was playing his 200th ODI and then when he elected to bat, he justified his call by slamming his 31st century. It was a milestone hundred as he surpassed the great Ricky Ponting and is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar in terms of hundreds tally in ODIs. However, his 121 was not good enough to script an Indian win thanks to Tom Latham and Ross Taylor’s 200-run fourth wicket stand. The Indian skipper was in all praise for the Kiwi duo.
New Zealand, chasing 281, were 80 for 3 in the 18th over. New Zealand have revised their strategy and used the otherwise opener Latham in the middle-order. Not only he is donning the gloves, his strong technique with sweeping was suppose to prove handy against the Indian spinners. That is what happened. Latham launched an array of attractive strokes, which included drives, sweeps and reverse-sweeps to register his fourth ODI hundred, and spoiled Kohli’s party.
“New Zealand tackled our spinners really well. They picked their areas. Tom (Latham) especially. We enjoyed watching him. He has not played enough international games so credit to him. Trent (Boult) also bowled really well. The wicket had enough bounce and turn,” said Kohli in the post-match presentation, where he received a memento from Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on his milestone match.
Kohli also spoke about his 31st hundred and added: “On a personal note, the knock was pretty satisfying. 275-plus was good on that wicket, but New Zealand batted really well in the second half. Ross (Taylor) and Tom were outstanding and they deserved to win today. Putting the dew into perspective in the last 13-14 overs, we were definitely some runs short. Would have liked to have a better batting performance. However, from where we were, 280 was a competitive score. I would have liked others to chip in with the bat as well.”
This year has been fantastic for India in terms of ODIs. They beat England 2-1, were runners-up in Champions Trophy, beat West Indies 3-1, Sri Lanka 5-0 and Australia 4-1. They now trail the ODI series 0-1 against the tourist. The next ODI will be played in Pune on October 25.
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