The taste of victory always leaves a smile on the face, tweets Shikhar Dhawan after the first ODI win

India came up with a clinical show in the first ODI against New Zealand at McLean Park in Napier on Wednesday, thumping the hosts by 8 wickets to go 1-0 up in a five-match series. The Kiwis, who recently thrashed Sri Lanka 3-0 in a 50-over series, looked completely out of sorts as they were bowled out for 157, thanks to some spirited bowling from India. Mohammed Shami, who opened the bowling with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, gave some crucial blows to the Black Caps early in the innings from which they could never recover.

Shami was picked as the man of the match for his three for 19 from six overs. Kuldeep Yadav took four wickets for 39 runs to show how much dominant the Indians were in the game. However, a mention needs to be made about the visitors’ batters too. Opener Shikhar Dhawan belted 75 off 103 balls on a wicket where the home team struggled to score and along with captain Virat Kohli, he put up a partnership of 91 runs that took the game beyond the Kiwis’ reach.

It was since the first T20I against Australia in Brisbane in November that the hard-hitting southpaw got an international fifty. In the recent three-ODI series against Australia, Dhawan could manage just 55 runs from three games.

Dhawan completes 5,000 runs in ODIs as second fastest Indian

The batsman later tweeted a photo of him returning from the middle with Ambati Rayudu, the other unbeaten batsman, with a broad smile on his face. The 33-year-old batsman is known to show up a spirited face in public, irrespective of his or the team’s performance on the ground.

Here’s his tweet

The taste of victory always leaves a smile on the face.
Thank you for always encouraging us.
Rab rakha🙏#TeamIndia #Winning pic.twitter.com/NZa5lKCA2t

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) January 23, 2019

Wednesday’s match was also special for Dhawan as he completed 5,000 runs in the 50-over format and became the second fastest Indian batsman, bettering another southpaw Sourav Ganguly, former India captain. The Delhi batsman took 119 matches and 118 innings to achieve the feat. Dhawan was discarded as an opener in Tests and the man has shown some good form in the limited-over formats since then.

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