Twitter Reactions: Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal spin India to win in Napier

All the talk ahead of the ODI series between India and New Zealand was about the small grounds and how the batsmen will dominate the proceedings. But the first ODI at the McLean Park was a complete contrast, in fact, it turned out to be a damp squib in the end. The home side crumbled in front of India’s spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav and then the Men in Blue chased the total with only two wickets down.

After opting to bat first, New Zealand were rocked early. Mohammed Shami found his rhythm very quickly as he castled both the openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro to push the hosts behind. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor then joined hands and mainly concentrated on rotating the strike. The 34 runs in the partnership came at the expense of a lot of dot balls.

The introduction of Chahal in the bowling attack reaped quick rewards as Taylor’s marathon run with the willow was halted. He was caught and bowled by the leg-spinner and even Tom Latham was also sent back in the same fashion to leave the home team reeling at 76/4. Henry Nicholls also couldn’t do much and was snaffled by Kedar Jadhav.

Meanwhile, Williamson was accumulating runs safely and also got to his half-century in the process. But the constant fall of wickets put pressure on him and was the seventh casualty in the innings. After his fall, the innings was wrapped up soon as the Kiwis collapsed to 157/10 from 133/5 in 50 balls. Kuldeep returned with the figures of 4/39 while Chahal ended with 2/43.

Dhawan leads the chase

The meagre total was never going to trouble India and the surface was conducive for batting which proved with the way Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. They added 41 runs for the opening wicket before the latter was dismissed by Doug Bracewell after which the play was stopped due to Sun outrage. The resumption saw nothing but India’s further dominance in the game.

Virat Kohli and Dhawan made batting look extremely easy. Their partnership of 91 runs all but sealed the first ODI. Kohli looked set for his 50th half-century but Lockie Ferguson’s pace undid him and it was the duo of Dhawan and Ambati Rayudu who finished the game. The left-hander finally found his groove for the first time since the Asia Cup as he remained unbeaten on 75 with the visitors winning the game by eight wickets comfortably.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the game:

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