Internet Desk: Defending Champions India bundled out the mighty Kiwis for mere 189 runs in their first warm-up match at the Oval ahead of the Champions Trophy on Sunday.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first on wicket, which looked very good for batting. For India, all the focus was on Mohammed Shami and R Ashwin both making come back in One Day Cricket. On paper Indian batting looks thin as Yurvaj Singh is still recovering from flu and Rohit Sharma hasn’t arrived in the UK yet.
After an erratic start Indian pacers got hold of their line & length. Strategy of giving the new ball to Hardik Pandya may have to be revisited, specially when you have someone like Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has the ability to move the new ball both ways.
Shami on the other end was on fire and ripped apart the top order of Kiwis by operating in right channels.
Once the pressure was created, India didn’t let it go. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and both the spinners, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja kept taking wicket at regular intervals and didn’t allow any chance of New Zealand recovery.
Luke Ronchi was the only performer for the Kiwi’s and scored an attacking fifty before getting foxed by Jadeja on 66.
Indian bowling unit was top notch with all the bowlers showing fine form except Pandya who looked bit inconsistent.
On a good-looking batting wicket, where par score could have been 300 plus, India have done reasonably good job of reducing Kiwi’s to the paltry score of 189 runs.
For India Bhuvneshwar and Shami stood out for three wickets each to their name.