India beat New Zealand at Eden Park as Kohli’s 74 and Kamboj’s 10 overs settle a rain-hit opener

Kamboj’s 10 overs against everyone else’s

India chose to bowl after a 10-minute delay for showers. New Zealand reached 73 for 2 in the 14th over, with Tim Seifert making 38 in place of Devon Conway, who was concussed in a training collision with Matt Henry on the eve of the game, as our Eden Park preview reported. Will Young and Henry Nicholls made 9 each.

Arshdeep Singh took 4 for 70 and Gurnoor Brar 3 for 44 from 9.2 overs. Kamboj went at 2.20 an over with two maidens, removing Mitchell Santner for 4 and Nathan Smith, caught by Kohli at second slip, for 1.

“The key was just consistent length and line, not thinking about how the wicket is behaving,” Kamboj said, IANS reported. He added that the wobble-seam ball was working so well that he used it “again and again”. Santner’s view, reported by CricTracker, was that the pitch “probably bounced more than expected and was quicker than usual”.

The late damage came from the last man in. Blair Tickner hit 34 off 23 balls, the second-best score in the innings, and his four sixes are the joint-most by a No. 11 in an ODI innings, by CricTracker’s count.

Rain cut the chase and Kohli finished it

Kyle Jamieson had Rohit Sharma caught by Santner for a six-ball duck in the first over. Rain stopped play at 54 for 1 in the 11th, then again at the end of the 12th with India on 64 for 1. The revision left 79 needed from 20 overs with nine wickets in hand, or 3.95 an over.

Kohli reached his 80th ODI fifty off 35 balls and added 113 with Shubman Gill, who made 37 off 56. Four wickets then fell in the rush to finish. Jacob Duffy, who ended with 3 for 49, removed Kohli and Axar Patel within three balls, and Shreyas Iyer went for 15. Naman Dhir hit the winning boundary off Smith with 56 balls left, KL Rahul unbeaten on 3 at the other end.

Kohli’s numbers after the 74

CricTracker’s records count has him on 8,741 runs in ODI chases, past Sachin Tendulkar’s 8,720. It also puts him level with Ricky Ponting on two lists against New Zealand: 1,971 ODI runs and 18 scores of 50 or more. He now has 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3, which CricTracker calls a first.

What happens next

The second ODI is in Wellington on Saturday 7 November, starting at 3pm local time, 7:30am IST. New Zealand were already without Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra, and the match reports give no update on Conway. India came into the ODIs having won the T20Is 3-2, despite losing the last game in Hamilton by seven wickets.

“If we are able to do the same thing over and over again, I think we’ll be in a great space,” Gill said after the game.

Market watch

• Arshdeep took the wickets and leaked the runs. His 7.00 an over against Kamboj’s 2.20 is a reason to treat wicket markets and runs-conceded markets as separate questions.
• Weather Underground’s city forecast shows afternoon showers in Wellington on Saturday, which covers the 3pm start. It is a general forecast, not a ground one, but check how a shortened game settles before backing a totals line.
• Kohli scored more than half of India’s 143, and his price as top India batter is likely to reflect that. Rohit’s duck and Gill’s 37 off 56 came in the same innings.
• Tickner outscored every New Zealand batter except Seifert. With Chapman and Ravindra out and Conway unconfirmed, top-order runs are the question for New Zealand’s team total markets.

For more, see our cricket predictions, the teams hub and upcoming fixtures in our match centre.

Top image: Photo: Kiwi Flickr / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons