Kolkata: The men in blue warmed off in style before the Champions Trophy by beating New Zealand by 45 runs via DLS method at The Oval in London on Sunday.
Batting first, they received early jolts as opener Martin Guptill (9) fell cheaply to Mohammad Shami. Skipper Kane Williamson (8) and Neil Broom (0) too fell to the same bowler few overs later as they were reduced to 86/4 at one stage when all-rounder Corey Anderson (13) fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Luke Ronchi (66) however fought his way through to a brilliant innings and after he was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja in the 21st over, hopes of a decent New Zealand total were too put to rest as the rest of the batsmen fell one after the other to end up at 189 in 38.4 overs. All-rounder Jimmy Neesham played a defiant knock of 46 runs but couldn’t do much to improve the score as he kept running out of partners.
Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the best bowler for Kohli’s men as they scalped three wickets each. The spinners too contributed as Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja as they shared three wickets between them.
In reply, Ajinkya Rahane (7) departed early in the chase but Shikhar Dhawan played a good innings of 40 runs. Skipper Virat Kohli too roared back into form with an unbeaten half-century and Mahendra Singh Dhoni played an unbeaten 17 run knock to take India home in a rain affected chase.
India’s second practice match is against Bangladesh on Tuesday, May 30.
Brief scores: New Zealand 189 all out in 38.4 overs (Luke Ronchi 66, Jimmy Neesham 46*; Bhuvneshwar Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/28; Mohammed Shami 3/47) lost to India 129/3 in 26 overs via D/L method (Virat Kohli 52*, Shikhar Dhawan 40; Jimmy Neesham 1/11) by 45 runs