India captain Shikhar Dhawan reckons his team scoring 306/7 in 50 overs after being put in to bat first in the recently concluded first ODI against New Zealand at the Eden Park was a good enough total to challenge the opposition.
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To be fair to them, the visitors did challenge the hosts on the back of dismissing three batters within the first 20 overs. Not being able to pick another wicket for throughout the remaining 27 overs was primarily because of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and wicket-keeper batter Tom Latham’s 40th half-century and seventh century respectively.
Having been there and done that in such situations, Williamson and Latham put together a 221-run fourth-wicket partnership to nullify all the initial progress made by the Indian fast bowlers. Turning a testing run-chase into a one-sided encounter by the third powerplay, Williamson and Latham eventually sealed the chase with 17 balls to spare.
Shikhar Dhawan believes Tom Latham scoring 25 runs in Shardul Thakur over turned tables
Latham, who plays spinners quite well for a batter belonging to New Zealand, not only neutralized Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal’s threat but managed to continuously attack the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur and Umran Malik.
With the Indian pace-trio bowling short balls on purpose due to the shorter straight boundaries in Auckland, Latham was second to none whilst nailing pull shots (49 runs) one after the other.
A crowing point of Latham’s match-winning knock came against Thakur in the 40th over. With the left-handed batter hitting a six and as many as four fours, New Zealand successfully registered a 25-run over. Latham, who brought up a 76-ball century in the same over, also reduced the equation for his team from needing 91 runs in 11 overs to needing just 66 in the last 10.
“It [Eden Park] is a bit different than other grounds. Have to plan accordingly. Today, we’ve bowled short of length and [Tom] Latham attacked us there. That’s where he took the game away from us especially in the 40th over. That’s where the momentum shifted,” Dhawan told Spark Sport during the post-match presentation ceremony.
