Brandon McCullum and Jacob Oram led New Zealand to an emphatic seven-wicket victory in the first Twenty20 international against India at the AMI Park in Christchurch on Wednesday.
With the help of the unbeaten knocks of McCullum (56) and Oram (29), the Kiwis achieved the victory target of 163 runs with 7 balls to spare.
Earlier,Vettori won the toss and elected to bowl.
Virender Sehwag smashed consecutive sixes off the first three balls he faced. At that time,it looked like it would be a tough night in the field for New Zealand as Tim Southee conceded 19 runs off the first over.
But then Gambhir (6) was clean bowled by O'Brien. Sehwag was going all guns blazing at the other end.
Sehwag hit four sixes in his blitzkrieg knock of 26 runs that came off 10 balls. He too was clean bowled by O'Brien while going for another big hit.
India had 32 for two which quickly became 61 for five as Rohit Sharma (seven), Yuvraj Singh (one) and captain MS Dhoni (two) fell in quick succession.
Dhoni (2) was clean bowled by Ian Butler by a superb ball that came back in sharply.Before that,New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori trapped Yuvraj plumb in front of the wicket.
Rohit Sharma (7) was caught by Brendon McCullum off Butler. Rohit hit one six in his knock.
After that Suresh Raina had held the Indians' innings together as wickets fell at regular intervals, particularly through the middle of the order.
Raina's scored unbeaten 61 in 43 balls,including five sixes and a four.
Yusuf Pathan smashed three successive sixes off Nathan McCullum.
An outstanding piece of fielding by Oram ended Yusuf Pathan's innings,over long-on where Oram caught the ball, realized he would run over the boundary, threw the ball back in the air, and came back in to complete the catch.
Irfan Pathan was next to go, caught by Nathan McCullum off the bowling of Ryder.
India were struggling at 101 for seven in the 14th over.
But Harbhajan and Raina showed plenty of calmness and composure.
Raina built a vital partnership of 61 runs with Harbhajan at the end of the innings,that helped the visitors to post a reasonable total.
Harbhajan then showed some nice touches with the bat to score successive boundaries in the final over. He was bowled by Southee for 21 with the last ball of the match.
Suresh Raina (61) and Harbhajan Singh (21) guided India to a fighting total of 162/8.
In reply,New Zealand had a bad start ,as Jesse Ryder was trapped leg before by Ishant Sharma in just the second over.
Martin Guptill was lucky not to be given out lbw first ball.He made partnership with Ross Taylor and finally Oram.
After his lucky escape, Guptill started smashing the ball hard towards the boundary line,especially scoring consecutive sixes in Irfan Pathan's over.
But just nine runs short of his half-century, he was trapped leg before by Harbhajan Singh. At that time New Zealand were 56 for two.
But Taylor and McCullum took the match away from the Indians with a 50-run partnership as they worked the singles and punished the bad balls.
Taylor eventually was bowled by Zaheer Khan at the score of 31 off 20 balls.
After that, Oram and McCullum guided New Zealand to complete a successful run chase.
McCullum brought up his half-century in the 19th over with a six off Yusuf Pathan and Oram wrapped up the innings with his second six four balls later.
McCullum hit 3 sixes and 2 fours in his knock of 56, while Oram hit 2 sixes and 3 fours in his knock.
McCullum was declared 'The Man of the Match' for his match winning performance.
Match Summary:
India – 162/8 in 20 Overs
SK Raina- 61 V.Sehwag –26
IE O'Brien– 4-0-36-2 IG Butler– 49-0-29-2
New Zealand – 166/3 in 181.5 Overs
BB McCullum- 56 MJ Guptill– 41
Z Khan– 4-0-20-1 I Sharma– 4-0-35-1
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