Latham, Southee in rearguard action after Indian bowlers shine

Indian bowlers put up a collective effort led by debutant Hardik Pandya before a rearguard action from New Zealand saw them reach 190 in the first one-dayer, here this evening.
Pandya (3/31), who was handed over his ODI cap by legendary Kapil Dev, opened the attack along side comeback man Umesh Yadav (2/31) as the duo wreaked havoc in the initial overs to rattle the Black Caps innings.
Besides Pandya and Yadav, leg-spinner Amit Mishra too shone with the ball with figures of 3 for 49. If not for Tom Latham, who remained unbeaten on 79 and Tim Southee (55), New Zealand would have never imagined to reach near the 200-run mark.

Southee played the role of an aggressor and together with Latham stitched quickfire 71 runs off just 58 balls for the 9th wicket to give New Zealand bowlers something to bowl at.
Opting to bat after winning the toss, India witnessed a dream start as they reduced New Zealand to 43 for four in 10.4 overs.
Debutant Pandya gave India the first breakthrough in the final ball of the second over when he removed out-of-form Martin Guptill (12).

Struggling for runs throughout the tour, Guptill hit Pandya for three boundaries in the same over before the right-arm medium pacer took his revenge, inducing an outside edge as the batsman jabbed at a length delivery and Rohit Sharma did the honours at the second slip.

Much was expected from New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson (3) but he too perished soon, slashing a wide delivery from comeback man Umesh straight to Amit Mishra at third man boundary in the 7th over.
It was a gem of a delivery from Umesh, which pitched on good length outside off and moved slightly to get an outside edge and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni did the rest behind the stumps.
Returning to action after change of ends, Pandya dismissed Corey Anderson (4), but the credit for the wicket should go to Umesh, who pulled off a superb catch at mid-off.

An over later, Pandya picked up his third wicket of the day in the form of Luke Ronchi, who flicked one straight to Umesh at mid-on as New Zealand slumped to 49 for five at the end of the 13th over.