Kohli ton helps India beat New Zealand by 40 wickets

GUWAHATI - Riding on young shoulders, India defeated New Zealand by 40 runs in the first One-day International here Sunday and took a 1-0 lead in the five-match cricket series.

Virat Kohli (105) scored his fourth ODI century as India were all out for 276 runs, with one over to spare at the Nehru Stadium. Sreesanth, Ravichandran Aswhin and Yuvraj Singh picked up three wickets each while Ashish Nehra got one to bundle out New Zealand for 236 runs in 45.2 overs.

Asked to bat first, India were off to a good start with Murali Vijay (29) and stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir (38) adding 44 runs for the first wicket in seven overs. Vijay, who was opening in the absence of the rested Virender Sehwag, looked set for a big score but departed in his attempt to charge Daryl Tuffey and wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins took a great catch running backwards.

Kohli, who hit 10 fours in his 104-ball innings, was involved in two crucial partnerships with Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh (42) that helped India put up a formidable total in the absence of senior players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh.

While chasing, New Zeland, sans captain Daniel Vettori, lost wickets at regular intervals.

Stand-in captain Ross Taylor (66) did his best while Nathan McCullum (35) and Kyle Mills (32) offered some resistance with their 77-run stand for the ninth wicket, but it came too late.