London: Indian batting line-up’s soft underbelly lay exposed in slightly favourable bowling conditions as New Zealand gave a rude wake-up call, winning the first warm-up game ahead of the ICC World Cup by six wickets here Saturday.
Under overcast conditions, Trent Boult’s (4/33 in 6.2 overs) incisive swing bowling was a test of technique for the Indian top-order batsmen and the Men In Blue never recovered from an early collapse, being bowled out for 179 in 39.2 overs.
It was a walk in the park for the ‘Black Caps’ as they reached the target in only 37.1 overs with Kane Williamson (67) and Ross Taylor (71) helping themselves to half-centuries. While it was a warm-up game and the outcome of the result isn’t something that India would be bothered too much but what certainly would keep them worried is the failure to find a solution for their problems.
KL Rahul failed at No 4, Dinesh Karthik’s poor IPL form continued while Vijay Shankar and Kedar Jadhav’s respective injuries in all likelihood would prevent the team management from checking them out against Bangladesh in the second warm-up game at Cardiff. The two wrist spinners — Kuldeep Yadav (0/44 in 8.1 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (1/37 in 6 overs), who have gone off the boil in the past few months — also didn’t make much of an impact. Kohli admitted his side couldn’t execute their plans. “Didn’t go to plan. Good challenge up front though. We can expect that in some places in England when conditions are overcast. From 50 for 4 to get to 180 was a good effort,” Kohli said after New Zealand overhauled the 180-run target in 37.1 overs to hand India a six-wicket defeat in the first warm-up match of the World Cup. “In a tournament like the World Cup, the top order can go off sometimes, so Hardik getting runs, MS (Dhoni) absorbing pressure and Jadeja’s fifty, those were good positives.” Talking about India’s bowling effort, Kohli said: “We bowled well — they were going at 4, 4.5 per over — and looking at that in isolation we did well. Fielders are going to play a crucial role, half chances will be massive. We’ll have to be precise in all three departments.” New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson was happy with the effort of his seamers and he plans to use the spinners more in the second warm-up match. “With the new ball, there was a little bit of seam movement, not too much swing. We didn’t get too much from the spinners but hopefully we can get them some work in the second warm-up game,” he said. “It was quicker in the first innings than the second innings, it got slower later on.” Williamson said his team was trying to be flexible in their batting unit. “Henry (Nicholls) can bat at the top and in the middle. And with Tom’s (Curran) finger being injured, we wanted to have (Colin) Munro up there to give us options. We are trying to be flexible as we know Munro can be destructive. “Facing a quality side like India and scoring some runs is always good,” he said. (PTI)
