Sunil Gavaskar, a former captain of the Indian cricket team, criticised Virat Kohli after the right-hander was out for a cheap run by Mitchell Santner in the opening ODI match between India and New Zealand on Wednesday in Hyderabad. Kohli entered the series having scored two enormous hundreds against Sri Lanka, but he was unable to duplicate his feats. When Kohli failed to make any touch with his bat, Santner surprised him with a straight ball that did very little off the pitch and smacked into the off stump.
“He played inside the line, which allowed the ball to slightly deviate from the outer edge. He should have played the ball forward, but instead he played it back. The ball wasn’t little. It just made a slight bend and sailed past a batter in excellent form’s outer edge “said he.
Shubman Gill put an end to the argument about who should bat first with a coming-of-age double-hundred before India held off Michael Bracewell’s onslaught to defeat New Zealand by a narrow 12-run margin in the opening ODI of the three-match series on Wednesday in Hyderabad. In his exceptional 208 off 149 balls, Gill exuded class. He batted steadily throughout the innings to lead India to 349 for eight. The second-best score of the innings and captain Rohit Sharma’s performance of 34 off 38 demonstrated how much of a one-man show it was.
When New Zealand was 131 for six and attempting to chase a lofty mark, they were all but out of the game. However, Michael Bracewell (140 off 78) produced an incredible century to get his team back into the match.
He and fellow left-hander Mitchell Santer, who had an ODI seventh wicket record of 57 off 45, combined for 162 off 102 balls, to put India’s nerves to the test.
Pacer Mohammed Siraj (4/46) won the game in front of his home audience by stopping New Zealand, who finished at 337.
