Virat Kohli gave a reason to rejoice for the 20,000-plus Mumbaikars who turned up at the Wankhede Stadium to mark the festive weekend with his 31st ODI hundred in his 200th appearance. However, Trent Boult’s superlative pace-bowling performance coupled with Ross Taylor and Tom Latham’s exploits with the willow ensured that New Zealand took a lead in the three-match series with a convincing six-wicket win on Sunday.
Kohli’s sheet-anchoring 121, with little support from the other end thanks to a combination of Boult’s brutal bowling and poor shot selection by India’s middle order batsmen, meant India was restricted to 280 for eight on a trademark Wankhede pitch, with decent bounce and a bit of assistance for the spinners.
However, Latham fit into his new role of a middle-order batsman perfectly in the company of senior statesman Taylor.
It ensured that the Kiwis were never under pressure in a run chase that eventually ended with a four through mid-wicket by Henry Nicholls off the last ball of the penultimate over.
Latham swapped his batting position with fellow left-hander Colin Munro, who was sent in to partner Martin Guptill in a bid to make the most of the PowerPlay. But when Latham joined Taylor in the middle, not only had both openers been dismissed but even skipper Kane Williamson had fallen to the wrist-spin of Kuldeep Yadav.
At 80 for three in the 18th over, the target of 281 looked a stiff task. But Taylor and Latham batted sensibly, preferring to first rebuild the innings and deprive the spin duo of Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal. It resulted in the spinners, especially Kuldeep, offering freebies, which were duly dispatched to the boundary with élan.
At the mid-way stage of the chase, there was little to choose between the scores of the two sides. However, the fact that neither Latham nor Taylor threw their wickets away turned out to be the difference between the two sides. By the time Bhuvneshwar Kumar got rid of Taylor, Latham had raised his bat for a fluent hundred, the scores were tied and most of the stands emptied out.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Indian openers were blown away by Boult — Shikhar Dhawan was caught behind while Rohit Sharma was done in by pace — and Kedar Jadhav wasted yet another opportunity to make the most of the No. 4 slot. Jadhav threw it away by spooning one straight back to left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner.
Dinesh Karthik, preferred over Manish Pandey in the middle order, then gave Kohli much-required support with the biggest partnership of the innings. However, just when Karthik was looking set for a big one, a miscued pull shot brought his innings to an abrupt end. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Hardik Pandya then got starts but couldn’t really capitalise in the death overs.
Kohli, on the other hand, was in his element, driving and flicking pacers and spinners alike with aplomb. He did get a reprieve on 29 when Santner at covers dropped an uppish drive off Colin de Grandhomme.
Then on, he played a trademark Kohli innings. He paced his innings to perfection, upping the scoring rate at the end.
