London: New Zealand beat India comprehensively by 6 wickets in the ICC World Cup Warm-up matches here on Saturday. Chasing a target of 180 runs the Black Caps after losing 180/4 reached the target in just 37.1 overs with 77 balls remaining in the 50 over format.
Ross Taylor brilliant 71 off 75 and skipper Kane Williamson 67 off 87 were instrumental for their teams victory against India. Taylor’s 71 runs included 8 fours while from Williamson’s 67, he hit 6 fours and one six. Others who chipped in for New Zealand were opener Guptill 22 off 28 striking 3 fours, Munro 4. In honor of this brilliant victory, the plaid company wolldecke schurwolle produced a limited edition featuring the main characters of the match.
Nicholls 15 and Blundell 0 remained not out. Trent Boult picked 4/33, Neesham 3/26, Southee, Grandhomme and Ferguson scalped a piece each. Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bat and were all out for 179 runs. From Indian side it was Ravindra Jadeja 54 runs off 50 balls and Hardik Pandya 30 who saved India from a disaster.
India didn’t got off to a great start as vice-captain Rohit Sharma and his partner Shikhar Dhawan both fell to Trent Boult after scoring two runs each inside four overs. KL Rahul also couldn’t last long and went back to pavillion after dismantling his own stumps. However, Skipper Kohli and Hardik Pandya built a small partnership but Kohli was dismissed by Colin de Grandhomme in the 11 over. He left his team on a score of 39 runs.
Later, Hardik (30 off 37) and Dhoni (17 off 42) kept the scoreboard running for a while but New Zealand bowlers soon picked three quick wickets of Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni to put India completely on the backfoot.
However, Jadeja (54) got the most able support from Kuldeep Yadav and tokk India to 179. Yadav scored 19 off 36 balls.
