India scrape home after Kohli, Gill hit half-centuries

New Zealand struck three times in 13 balls to dismiss, Kohli, Jadeja and Iyer to give India a brief scare in 301 chase

India 306 for 6 (Kohli 93, Gill 56, Iyer 49, Jamieson 4-41) beat New Zealand 300 for 8 (Mitchell 84, Nicholls 62, Conway 56, Siraj 2-40, Prasidh 2-60, Rana 2-65) by four wickets

With scores of 74*, 135, 102 and 65* in his last four ODIs, Virat Kohli seemed to be telling the world he was no longer willing to be dismissed unless he had reached three figures. This sequence seemed to be stretching into the new year, with Kohli batting on 93 and taking full control of a chase of 301.

Then, a familiar nemesis appeared. Kyle Jamieson has caused Kohli and India numerous headaches in Test cricket, and now he burst this first ODI wide open in the space of seven balls with the wickets of Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer.

Having been cruising to victory minutes earlier, India suddenly needed 59 off 53 balls with five wickets in hand and two new batters at the crease. And with Washington Sundar held back, nursing a side strain, one of them was the lower-order batter Harshit Rana.

A match dominated by India moved now to an exciting finish, and both Rana - who made a 23-ball 29 - and the hobbling Washington played their part in it, before KL Rahul put the finishing touches, hitting debutant Kristian Clarke for 4, 4, 6 to seal victory with six balls to spare.KL Rahul guided India home•BCCI

The first men's international game at the Kotambi Stadium got the finish fans may have craved, but its tension had seemed inconceivable when Kohli was in the middle, putting on stands of 118 with Shubman Gill and 77 with Iyer.

Kohli's innings was one of both vintage and new-age rhythms. He was all intent at the start, stepping out to the seamers, prepared to go over the top, hitting six fours in his first 20 balls. Thereafter, he knew he was in charge, and dictated the tempo like a deep-lying midfield playmaker.

There was, for instance, the shot he played to go from 75 to 79. Having hit just one boundary in 55 balls (and not being any worse off for it), he manufactured one off Clarke with his expert manipulation of the middle-overs field restrictions, with only four fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. He took stance outside leg stump, telling the bowler anything on the line of the stumps would go over the off side, with no one on the boundary at deep cover or mid-off. Clarke followed Kohli with a ball at his hip, and he wristed it expertly to the unguarded backward-square-leg boundary.

Within sight of a century, however, Kohli fell, charging Jamieson and failing to find the elevation needed to clear mid-off. Jamieson then took out Jadeja and a set Iyer, who had batted authoritatively until then upon his return from injury, taking a heavy toll of legspinner Adithya Ashok. Both were soft dismissals, though both came off cross-seam deliveries that misbehaved just enough off this black-soil Vadodara surface to punish shots lacking neither defensive nor attacking conviction.Kyle Jamieson's strikes applied pressure on India with a four-for•BCCI

Then Rana, surviving a dropped chance from Daryl Mitchell on the midwicket boundary, dominated a sixth-wicket stand of 37 with Rahul before falling with 22 needed off 22. With Washington only able to walk between wickets, India still managed a single nearly every ball, before Rahul applied that emphatic finish with nine needed off nine balls.

That India were in full control for much of their chase indicated two things: one, the lack of experience in New Zealand's injury-ravaged attack, and two: the inadequacy of their total.

Their innings began promisingly, with Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls putting on 117 for the first wicket, but as well as they batted, India's bowlers never let the scoring rate run away. Then Rana dismissed both openers, diddling out Nicholls with a wide slower yorker before bowling Conway off the inside edge with an inducker.

Thereafter, New Zealand's innings was full of promising innings and promising partnerships that ended just when they were beginning to look threatening. India's seamers did the bulk of the wicket-taking, while Kuldeep Yadav took out the dangerous Glenn Phillips with a cleverly looped-up wrong'un.

Amid all that, Mitchell ensured New Zealand wouldn't fall short of a competitive total with an innings of industry - he only took 51 balls to get to his half-century despite only hitting four boundaries in that time - and well-timed spurts of aggression, including a sequence of 4, 6, 4 off Prasidh Krishna in the 48th over - the highlight a scooped four over short fine - before falling lbw next ball.