Kohli and quicks power India to 1-0 lead in Auckland

A lot can change in four days. On last Friday New Zealand scored 259 in a T20I at Eden Park. In an ODI on Wednesday, they were bowled out for 185 by India's seamers, who were relentless with their interrogation of the batters and were supported by excellent fielding and captaincy. All the aggression with the ball and in the field proved to be useful as it earned Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill the time to get the win amid frequent rain breaks during their chase.

Anshul Kamboj, picked ahead of Mohammed Siraj, was the pick of the bowlers even though he took just two wickets. He extracted seam movement right until his last over, the 33rd of the innings, conceded just 22 in his 10 overs bowled across two spells and contributed to wickets at either ends with his discipline. The two Punjab seamers, Arshdeep Singh and Gurnoor Brar, caused sharp damage either side of Kamboj's wickets, getting four wickets with the short ball.

Arshdeep got a little greedy for the fifth wicket in the end, allowing the No. 11 Blair Tickner hit three sixes off him to rearrange his figures to 10-0-70-4, but Gurnoor backed him up with his third, ending a frustrating 39-run last-wicket stand between Tickner and Jacob Duffy.

India's tactics and fielding complemented the bowling. There was a second slip in place when Kamboj produced an edge in the 29th over. Kohli, a day short of his 38th birthday, was there to dive low to his right to take a one-handed stunner to match the 39-year-old Rohit Sharma's diving run-out of Daryl Mitchell. Apart from attacking field sets, Gill also kept bowling his strike bowlers: when Gurnoor got the final wicket, India had exhausted the quota of the three strike bowlers in the 41st over.

They wouldn't have known it then given the unpredictable Auckland weather, but bowling New Zealand out early was crucial for India as rain appeared out of nowhere twice and reduced India's innings to 32 overs. If New Zealand had batted their 50 overs out, they would have been close to escaping with a no-result even though Kohli's sensational 74 off 51 full of pulls and drives on the up ensured India needed only a little under 10 overs to spare.