India v New Zealand, 2017: 1st T20I – Statistical Highlights

Team India finally broke their losing streak against New Zealand in T20I cricket with a huge win in the 1st T20I at the Feroz Shah Kotla which was marked to be the final International game of Ashish Nehra’s career. Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma scored 80 runs each to take India’s total to 202/3. New Zealand struggled to get going against a strong Indian bowling as they ended up with 149/8 in their 20 overs.

Here we look at all the stats and records that were recorded during India’s first ever T20I win against New Zealand.

5 – Number of T20Is India played before registering their maiden win against New Zealand. Only Bangladesh (7) played more matches before their 1st win against Pakistan. Australia also won their first T20I against New Zealand in their 6th game.

18y 250d – Nehra became the 8th Indian with an International career span of 18 years and more. His is the 4th longest for any Indian.

38y 186d – At the age of 38 years and 186 days, Nehra became the 2nd oldest to appear in a T20I game. Rahul Dravid played his only T20I game in 2011 at the age of 38 years and 232 days.

50 – This was the 50th fifty-plus score for Rohit Sharma in Twenty20 cricket. He is now the 7th player overall and the 3rd Indian after Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir to hit fifty fifty-plus scores in this format.

98 – Number of balls New Zealand needed to take India’s first wicket in this game. Pakistan failed to take a wicket after bowling 106 balls against New Zealand in a T20I in 2016. Scotland batted 104 balls for losing their first wicket against Kenya in 2008.

156 – Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan’s partnership of 156 is the highest for any wicket for India in T20I cricket. Rohit and Virat Kohli shared 138 for the 2nd wicket against South Africa at Dharamsala in 2015. Rohit and Dhawan also became the 3rd Indian opening pair with a century stand in T20Is after Gautam Gambhir-Virender Sehwag and KL Rahul-Mandeep Singh.

202/3 – India’s total of 202/3 is the joint 2nd highest for them at home in T20I cricket. Their highest was 211/4 against Sri Lanka in 2009 while chasing.

268 – Number of sixes Rohit Sharma has hit in T20 cricket. These are the most number of sixes for an Indian batsman in this format. He went past Suresh Raina (265) with the four sixes in this game.