25 overs India 100 for 2 (Rohit 56*, Rayudu 36*) v New Zealand
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
India made an overdue axing and an unexpected one, but once play began the story of the first 25 overs was the exceptional discipline Tim Southee and Kyle Mills bowled with. The consequent pressure created the wickets of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, and should have had Rohit Sharma too but the surviving opener was put down by Ross Taylor at first slip.
If Rohit was dropped by the opposition, Shikhar Dhawan found himself at the other end of fortune, dropped by his captain along with Suresh Raina, who had scored one fifty - that against Zimbabwe - in his last 30 innings. These two changes, and the change in tactics - batting first after having invited the opposition 30 times in a row outside Asia - was a complete departure from the usual MS Dhoni way. You wonder, though, if he did too many things at once after having gone an age without doing nothing.
In Dhawan's absencve, the best batsman of the side moved from his usual No. 3 position to open the innings. And he and Rohit were tied down by Mills and Southee. The first over was a maiden, half-volleys and long hops were rare, nothing was bowled on the pads, and the first boundary came in the seventh over and involved a lot of risk. The slow loopy bounce on the Seddon Park pitch didn't help matters, making it difficult to time the ball.
New Zealand used the short ball wisely. The first of those came in the fourth over with the score at just five. Kohli thought he finally saw something he could go after, but managed only a top edge. By around the seventh over, Rohit - already 15 dots to his credit - began to take undue risks. Once he skied past mid-off, and once he managed to clear long-on. A loose shot in the next over followed, but Taylor dropped a fairly simple catch by New Zealand's standards to deny Southee. In the next over, though, another smart bouncer claimed Ajinkya Rahane.
At 22 for 2 in the ninth over, India needed Rohit to make his luck count, but he would also need support from the other end. Support came from Ambati Rayudu, although the first few acts of the partnership were edgy. They didn't quite look comfortable against the spongy bounce, Rohit pre-meditated twice and took boundaries off outside edges, Rayudu was nearly caught at third man, but the two stayed together to give India a recovery with a 78-run stand in 16.4 overs.
There were classy shots in between, including Rohit's dismissive pull off Bennett and an off-drive off James Neesham for sixes. By the end of the 25th over, Rohit had converted his 5 off 20 at one point to 56 off 76.
Hamish Bennett provided them a few loose balls, just straying too straight, and both Rohit and Rayudu cashed in. Bennett went for 20 in his three overs with four leg-side boundaries. Between them, Southee and Mills conceded 27 in their 12.
New-look India recover with rohit fifty
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New-look India recover with rohit fifty
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New-look India recover with rohit fifty
