New Zealand hand India crushing defeat in tri-series opener

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DAMBULLA - India were handed a crushing 200-run defeat by New Zealand in the One-Day International (ODI) tri-nation series here Tuesday.

Winning the toss and batting, New Zealand led by a fourth-wicket 190 run stand between skipper Ross Taylor (95) and Scott Syris (89) piled up a formidable 288 runs in 48.5 overs.

New Zealand then bowled out India for a meagre 88 in just 29.3 overs. Daryl Tuffey was the pick of New Zealand bowlers with the figures of 3-34 from his eight overs and was well complemented by Jacob Oram (2-26) and Kyle Mills (2-15). They bowled at the right areas and exploited the conditions which suited fast bowling.

This is India’s biggest defeat under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The Indian chase after, seeing some early overs, soon crumbled and their batsmen were back in the pavilion without putting up a fight. Ravindra Jadeja’s top score of 20 speaks of the struggle of the Indian batsmen.

Openers Virender Sehwag (19) and Dinesh Karthik (14) added 39 runs in seven overs, before the Indian batsmen collapsed in a dramatic fashion. They struggled against the four-pronged pace attack, and were clearly at sea while tackling the pace and movement.

Earlier, New Zealand’s batting looked pale in the absence of Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori. The Black Caps were off to an ominous start, losing three quick wickets for 28, but Taylor and Styris joined hands in the seventh over. They survived some anxious moments but soon began to cut loose, coming down heavily on Indian spinners Pragyan Ojha (58 for one) and Ravindra Jadeja (63 for no loss) in the middle overs.

The two looked poised to carry on in the same vein till the end but Ojha managed to disturb the bails of Styris in the 39th over. Styris’ innings came off 95 balls with nine fours and a six. Taylor departed four overs later when he was trapped leg before by Nehra. His innings included eight fours and a six.

India were forced to use spinners till the 46th over but the Indian seamers rose to the task at the death and were prompt in dismissing the New Zealand tail with seven balls to spare. Ashish Nehra (4-47) and Praveen Kumar (3-43) were the key Indian bowlers.