Mohammed Shami's four-wicket haul was the highlight of India's inconsistent bowling effort as the visitors were set a formidable target of 293 by New Zealand in the first cricket one-dayer here today.
Indian bowlers pulled things back in the death overs after Corey Anderson, the man who broke the record for the fastest ODI hundred recently, threatened to run away with the initiative. The Kiwis eventually finished at 292 for seven.
Anderson hit 68 off 40 balls, his first ODI half-century after Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor put on 121 runs for the third wicket at the McLean Park.
Shami was the most successful bowler for the visitors, finishing with 4-55 from nine overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-38), Ishant Sharma (1-72) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-61) were the other wicket-takers, while R Ashwin (0-52) and Virat Kohli (0-13) finished wicket-less.
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. The visitors made two changes from their last ODI played in South Africa with Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar coming in for the dropped Yuvraj Singh and Umesh Yadav.
New Zealand made one change from their last ODI against West Indies, bringing in Adam Milne for Kyle Mills.
Bhuvneshwar and Shami started the proceedings for India with Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder taking strike. Ryder started off in a hurry, using the short boundaries to good effect, hitting the first six of the game in the very first over of the day.
He hit three more boundaries as New Zealand raced in the first four overs, before Shami got rid of the dangerous looking Ryder. The left-handed batsman didn't play a great stroke of a straight, fast delivery and was bowled for 18 runs off 16 balls (three fours, one six).
Four overs later, Shami picked up the second wicket of his early spell of four overs, with Guptill (8) edging one to R Ashwin at first slip. It brought Ross Taylor to the crease who combined with number three batsman Kane Williamson flay the Indian bowling in the middle overs.
