Kohli stars as India beat New Zealand in rain-hit Auckland ODI, passing Tendulkar’s chase record
Virat Kohli scored 74 from 51 balls as India chased a revised target of 143 to beat New Zealand by five wickets in the rain-affected first ODI at Eden Park, Auckland, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs in ODI run chases and becoming the first batter to reach 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3.
India have beaten New Zealand by five wickets in the rain-affected first one-day international at Eden Park, Auckland, taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series after a match twice interrupted by weather.
Chasing a revised target of 143 from 32 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, India reached the target in 22.4 overs, with Virat Kohli’s 74 from 51 balls the defining innings of the day.
The result is a major new development in a match this site earlier reported with the chase halted by rain at 54 for 1. Play resumed after a delay of around an hour and a half, the target was cut first to 40 overs and then to 32, and India finished the job in comfortable fashion despite a late flurry of wickets.
New Zealand, asked to bat first, were bowled out for 185 in 40.2 overs on a lively Eden Park pitch offering extra bounce and seam movement. Arshdeep Singh took four wickets and Gurnoor Brar three, while Anshul Kamboj returned figures of 2 for 22, and only a spirited 39-run final-wicket stand between Blair Tickner and Jacob Duffy lifted the hosts to a total that still looked well below par.
India lost Rohit Sharma in the first over of the chase, but captain Shubman Gill and Kohli steadied the innings with a 113-run partnership that effectively broke New Zealand’s resistance, even as Duffy struck three times with the short ball.
Kohli, playing on the eve of his 38th birthday, reached his 80th ODI half-century from just 35 balls, his second-fastest fifty in an away ODI, striking 13 fours and a six before falling to Duffy in the 19th over, attempting a pull, with India needing fewer than 30 runs.
The innings also carried two landmarks. Kohli became the first batter in ODI history to score 13,000 runs while batting at No. 3, and he moved past Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record of 8,720 runs in ODI run chases, a mark Tendulkar set across 232 innings.
Kohli left the field to a standing ovation from the Eden Park crowd, in what reports noted could be his final appearance at the ground, and Naman Dhir sealed the win with a boundary over mid-wicket, as India ended a 23-year wait for an ODI win against New Zealand at Auckland.
For New Zealand, the defeat continues a difficult run in the format against India, and captain Mitchell Santner’s side will need a sharp response in the second ODI if they are to avoid falling 2-0 behind in the series.
For India, the win sets up the rest of the series nicely. Gill’s calm captaincy, the seamers’ discipline and Kohli’s enduring appetite for a chase all featured on the same day, and the tourists will now look to press home their advantage when the series moves on.
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