1st ODI: Ind v. NZ: India win by D/L method!

India beat New Zealand to take 1-0 lead in the five match ODI series. Rain interrupted the match several times and the officials had to reduce the over on each occassion. Understanding the weather, Dhoni decided to bat first after winning the toss.

The overs were reduced to 38 overs a side and India scored 273. Sehwas was at his best with blistering knock of 77 in 56 balls with 11 fours and a six. Though the ground was small compared to other grounds in Australia and India, one really has to score. Sehwag started the ODI series well for himself and the Indian team.

Tendulkar departed early on 20. Dhoni scored unbeaten 84 in 89 balls with 6 fours. He played the captains innings and lead from the front. Though Yuvi was run out for 2, Raina played master innings. He scored 66 in 39 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes.

The three blocks of powerplay were for 8, 4, and 3 overs. Raina's knock really turned the match with the Indian team scoring quick runs in the third power play which had 3 overs limit. India scored 40 runs in the 3rd powerplay in which Raina scored 25 runs and Dhoni scored 14 runs. In the last 10 overs, India scored 109 runs which really gave India winning score.

New Zealand was given a revised target of 278 in 38 overs. In the 21st over, rain intervened and the target was reduced to 216 in 28 overs which is next to impossible against the Indian bowling attack. New Zealand never looked winning and India was on top from the beginning.

During the presentation, the captians said:

Vettori: "Disappointing result and some serious lack of execution cost us. We bowled pretty poorly and Raina's innings, in particular, took the game away from us. We put ourselves in a difficult situation while batting second and the revised target was never within reach."

Dhoni: "The important thing was to get a good start, and when you manage that you'll often end up setting a good enough target for the bowlers to defend. Raina batted really well, and so did Sehwag. There were times in the Twenty20 games when we went all guns blazing and lost too many wickets doing so, but our overall approach has been very good. Praveen Kumar bowled well too, he's a street smart cricketer, has some good variations and bowls according to the conditions."

Dhoni was declared man of the match for his wonderful batting.

Scoreboard:

Tour: India to New Zealand
Series: ODI
Match #: 1
Date: Tuesday March 3, 2009
Venue: Napier
Captains: Daniel Vettori (NZ) and MS Dhoni (Ind)
Umpires: AL Hill and RE Koertzen; GAV Baxter-third umpire
Toss: Indai won the toss and decided to bat
Match: India won by 53 runs by D/L method
Man of the Match: MS Dhoni off India
Additonal Information: Match reduced to 38 overs a side; In the 21st over of NZ innings, the target was revised to 216 in 28 overs

India 273 for 4 in 38 overs (V Sehwag caught Taylor bowled Vettori 77, Tendulkar caught McCullum bowled Butler 20, MS Dhoni 84 not out, Yuvaraj Sing run out (Vettori/Guptill) 2, SK Raina caught O'Brien bowled Elliott 66, Yousuf Pathan 20 not out, Extras--4 (b 1, lb 1, nb 2), KD Mills 7-0-69-0, IE O'Brien 8-1-52-0, IG Butler 8-1-42-1, JPD Oram 2-0-19-0, DL Vettori 8-0-42-1, JD Ryder 3-0-27-0, GD Elliott 2-0-20-1)

Fall of Wickets: 1-69 (Tendulkar, 9.4 ov), 2-121 (Sehwag, 18.2 ov), 3-131 (Yuvraj Singh, 22.4 ov), 4-241 (Raina, 34.6 ov)

New Zealand (target revised in 21st over: 216 in 28 overs) 162 for 9 in 28 overs (JD Ryder caught Sehwag bowled Kumar 11, BB McCullum caught Harbhajan bowled Kumar 0, MJ Guptill caught Gambhir bowled Harbhajan 64, LRPL Taylor caught Tendulkar bowled Y Pathan 31, GD Elliott run out (Dhoni/Sehwag) 11, JDP Oram caught Dhoni bowled Yuvaraj 0, NT Broom st Dhoni bowled Harbhajan 2, Butler caught Patel bowled Zaheer 0, Mills caught Sehwag bowled Harbhajan 0, Vettori 26 not out, O'Brien 3 not out, Extras--14 (lb 10, w 3, nb 1), Zaheer Khan 6-1-19-1, Praveen Kumar 6-1-28-2, Munaf Patel 2-0-14-0, Yuvaraj 6-0-42-1, Yousuf Pathan 4-0-22-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-27-3)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (McCullum, 1.5 ov), 2-23 (Ryder, 7.4 ov), 3-81 (Taylor, 15.5 ov), 4-111 (Elliott, 20.5 ov), 5-111 (Oram, 20.6 ov), 6-132 (Guptill, 23.3 ov), 7-132 (Broom, 23.4 ov), 8-132 (Mills, 23.6 ov), 9-132 (Butler, 24.1 ov)