India score massive win over struggling New Zealand in warm-up
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 by a humiliating margin of 117 runs in Chennai.
India won the toss and dominated the visitors after electing to bat first. The hosts amassed a massive total of 360 runs, courtesy a brilliant century from their captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028. In reply, the Kiwis were all-out for 243 runs in 43.1 overs.
The wicket in Chennai was perfect for batting as there was no support for either fast bowlers or the spinners. However, there was some variable bounce in the wicket but it didn’t trouble the batsmen much.
The hosts opened their innings with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 and Sachin Tendulkar. The start to the Indian innings was steady but both the openers failed to carry onto the starts they got. Tendulkar was the first man to be dismissed after scoring 17 runs off 23 balls.
The veteran batsman was undone by a beautiful slower ball from Tim Southee, which crashed into Tendulkar’s stumps.
Just seven runs later, Sehwag was also shown his way to the pavilion and India were struggling at 42 for two. Sehwag was out after scoring 23 runs off 30 balls. This brought http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 to the crease. The pair played fearless cricket and
took their team to a very safe position with a solid century partnership. Kohli was dismissed after a 106-run stand with Gambhir, scoring 59 runs off 68 balls in the partnership.
Gambhir missed out on a century as he was dismissed after amassing 89 runs off 85 balls. However, he had provided a solid platform for the lower-middle order to score freely. This was exactly what Dhoni and Suresh Raina did as the pair put together a splendid
partnership of 124 from just 56 balls. Raina was dismissed in the 48thover after scoring an explosive half-century. He scored 50 off just 26 balls.
However, the Indian captain remained unbeaten on a splendid 108 runs off just 64 balls. His innings included eleven 4’s and three towering 6’s. The Kiwi bowlers were smashed to all parts of the park and had no answers to the explosive batting from the hosts.
Southee and Oram took two wickets each for their team but gave away too many runs in their spells.
The start to the New Zealand innings was very good as the opening pair of Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum gave their team a 94-run first wicket partnership. However, Guptill failed to capitalise on the start he got and was out after scoring 38 runs off
45 balls. McCullum was looking in devastating form, but was unfortunate to be run-out after scoring a brilliant half-century. The wicketkeeper batsman scored 58 runs off 54 balls.
Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 and James Franklin failed to get going and got out for 5 and 0 respectively in a span of just one run. Their wickets were followed by Jesse Ryder, who got out after scoring 32 runs off 36 balls. The visitors were struggling at 147 for the loss
of five wickets in 25.4 overs at that stage. This brought veteran all-rounder Scott Styris to the crease along with Jamie How. The pair failed to carry onto the starts they got and were out after scoring 20 and 15 respectively.
Nathan McCullum looked threatening, but ran out of partners at the other end. The flamboyant player was unbeaten on 29 off just 18 balls before the Kiwis were all out in the 44th over.
The spinners did the trick for India as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Piyush-c82317 Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh grabbed two wickets each for the hosts.
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