Image Credit- Getty
The 159-run stand between Daryl Mitchell and Rachin
Ravindra threatened to push New Zealand to a higher score, but India’s skipper
Rohit Sharma hailed his bowlers for dismissing them for 273, limiting them to a
manageable total.
When Mohammed Shami caught Ravindra at long-on in the
34th over, New Zealand had reached 178 for 2. India continued to take wickets
at regular intervals after that and limited New Zealand to a total that their
captain Tom Latham deemed to be below standard. India eventually won the chase
with four wickets remaining and 12 balls remaining, marking their fifth victory
in a row to take the top spot in the points standings.
“At one stage, we were looking at 300-plus, the
way Mitch [Mitchell] and Rachin [Ravindra] batted. NZ put up a big partnership
there,” Rohit said after the game. “The wicket was easy to bat on,
dew came in as well.
“But I’ve got to give credit to the bowlers in
the back end to pull things back nicely,” Rohit said. “And to
restrict them to 270-odd was a great effort.”
In the chase, Rohit laid down the platform with a
40-ball 46 before Virat Kohli made 95 to seal the win for India. He and Jadeja
put on 78 runs for the sixth wicket to complete the win.
“There’s nothing much to say, honestly. We’ve
seen him do this for so many years,” Rohit said about Kohli. “Such a
calm head. He’ll back himself to do the job. Towards the end there was a bit of
pressure, we lost a couple of wickets there, but Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja
pulled us back.”