 India beat New Zealand in the second warm-up game for the two sides played at Chennai on February 16. India were runaway winners as they piled up
360 in their 50 overs batting first and then went on to bowl the Kiwis out for 243 - a 117-run win for the home team.
New Zealand were always going to struggle against a side which had beaten them
five times in a row in recent times in a series. however, they started off very
nicely as they first kept the Indian run-rate in check and then sent back the
pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
At 42/2 in the tenth over, it looked like the Indians had made an ordinary
start but the partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli set
the platform for what went on to become an imposing total.
Both the players got to their half centuries but Kohli departed immediately
after that to leave the side at 148/3 in the 30th over. It was a good foundation
to get to a total of 300 with Yusuf Pathan still remaining but nobody could
have predicted the kind of assault that MS Dhoni launched.
Coming into bat in the 30th over, Dhoni played 64 balls and smashed an unbeaten
108 while Gambhir scored 89 and there was a whirlwind of a half century from
Suresh Raina. Raina's 50 came off 25 balls and he was dismissed off the
very next one.
In the end, India had scored 144 runs in the last 11 overs and set what was
an improbable task to chase down.
New Zealand started off well with their opening stand of 94 coming in less
than 15 overs thanks to some solid hitting by Brendon McCullum. However, what
put the brakes on the scoring was the wicket of Martin Guptill, who went for
38. McCullum made 58 but apart from Jesse Ryder's 32, none of the rest of the
batters did much with the bat and the New Zealand team was bowled out for 243.
Yuvraj, Piyush and Harbhajan took two wickets each.
Now, India will take on Bangladesh in what will be the first game of the World
Cup to be played at Dhaka on February 19. On the other hand, New Zealand will
remain in Chennai for their first game of the tournament when they take on Kenya
on the next day in what will be a day game.
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