Flat Black Caps crumble
A cricket-starved crowd strode into Napier’s McLean Park with expectant, wide-eyed looks.
A few hours later most wore faraway, deflated expressions, trying to fathom what had just happened in the ground’s first one-day international in nearly four years.
And that wasn’t even the sunstrike over the Chapman Stand that bizarrely halted play for 40 minutes for ‘player safety’, before India cantered to an eightwicket victory over New Zealand in the first ODI in front of an official crowd of 7517.
Near enough to New Zealand’s strongest lineup crumbled meekly for 157 in 38 overs against a fired-up India who looked every bit World Cup contenders before a fair few of their own cheering fans.
The tourists got home with 14 overs to spare, with skipper Virat Kohli’s classy 45 getting them close and opener Shikhar Dhawan’s unbeaten 75 icing it.
Few saw this flop on the horizon, the Black Caps such an imposing unit at home and a runfest looking likely. With seven ODIs left in the home summer and four months until the Cricket World Cup it won’t be panic stations for the world’s thirdranked side. Best get the shockers out of the way early.
But a few similar efforts with the bat and coach Gary Stead’s brow will furrow, along with a few others in high places at New Zealand Cricket. To win a World Cup they’ll have to knock over a side like India away from home in a high-pressure match, something that continues to provide jitters.
This was a far different proposition to battering a dubious Sri Lanka attack, and a powerhouse India have this five-match series at their mercy with game two at Mount Maunganui on Saturday.
Captain Kane Williamson’s 64 aside, it was a very poor show by the Black Caps first choice top-six amid high expectation on a pitch later described by Ross Taylor as more two-paced than they expected.
Still, most dismissals stemmed from poor option taking by the batsmen rather than any demons in the surface. Not forgetting some superb bowling from India’s well balanced attack which will be even tougher at World Cup time when the whippy Jasprit Bumrah and allrounder Hardik Pandya return.
Mohammed Shami initiated the slump in a wonderful new ball spell, piercing some gappy defence and hard hands from openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro.
Then the wrist spinners took over, left-armer Kuldeep Yadav (4-39) and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal (2-43), the latter snaffling the big wickets of Taylor and Tom Latham.
Both were too early on the shot, Taylor advancing and in no man’s land, and Chahal snared the return catches gleefully just above the grass. They fielded brilliantly, too, with Yadav grasping a ripper to remove Henry
Nicholls.
Taylor’s 24, after he’d looked in an imperious mood early, ended his New Zealand record run of six successive ODI halfcenturies which he shares with Williamson and Andrew Jones.
Williamson fought hard, survived a dropped catch on 20 by Kedar Jadhav and began the fightback. But first ball after drinks he caught the bug and hit straight to long-on with 17 overs left. It just wasn’t happening.
Allrounder Doug Bracewell is the only one of this 14-man squad unlikely to make the World Cup, barring some superhuman performances in the next few weeks. With Colin de Grandhomme resting, Bracewell strode out at 133-6, watched Williamson depart then was fooled by a googly from Yadav on seven.
The carnage was over so quickly that India got to bat before the dinner break.
Bracewell charged in and raised hopes when he struck with his second ball, removing world No 2-ranked Rohit Sharma to a genuine nick to a wide slip.
Latham couldn’t quite pouch a skier from Dhawan when they needed everything to stick. The bowlers were on a hiding to nothing, defending a paltry total on a small ground and fast outfield. Lockie Ferguson was sharp and topped 150kmh but it was a matter of time.
As the sun set and the lights fired up, the bowlers played out the last rites. Kohli was out hooking at Ferguson but it couldn’t end soon enough for the men in black. To quote Steven Hansen the best thing they can do is flush the dunny and move on.