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Napier: A comfortable victory for India. The only time it seemed New Zealand stood a chance of overhauling their score was when Taylor and Guptill added 58 for the third wicket. The rain interruption really hurt the hosts as they were left with over a 100 to get in less than eight overs. Harbhajan, in particular, had a superb time, taking three wickets in four balls to complete a comprehensive win for the visitors.
Chasing a revised victory target of 216 in 28 overs, the Kiwis managed 162/9 in the game that was marred by two rain interruptions.
New Zealand lost 4 wickets in 5 balls to be reduced to 132/9 in 24.1 overs.
It was Harbhajan Singh who started the Kiwi slide when he took 3 wickets in 4 balls. Harbhajan first dismissed Martin Guptill went for the slog sweep but got the height not the distance as Gautam Gambhir took a fumbling catch. Next delivery, Neil Broom charged down the pitch, missed the straighter delivery and was stumped by Dhoni. Kyle Mills survived the hat-trick ball but edged the next delivery to first slip for Virender Sehwag to take the catch.
On the first delivery of the next over bowled by Zaheer Khan, Ian Butler edged to fine leg for Munaf Patel to take the catch.
The Kiwis lost their fifth wicket on the first ball when play resumed after the second rain interruption when Jacob Oram played a sweep and went for the run not knowing that the ball was up in the air just behind him and Mahendra Singh Dhoni ran him out.
The Kiwis lost their fourth wicket when Grant Elliott hit through the covers and went for two runs but was not fast enough to beat the throw from Virender Sehwag into the hands of Dhoni and was run out. The rain came down at that very moment.
Earlier, Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss after losing both toss in Twenty20 and decided to bat first. Riding on half-centuries by Virender Sehwag, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina, India scored 273/4 in 38 overs.
Dhoni remained unbeaten on 84 off 89 balls with six hits to fence, while Raina smashed 4 sixes and 5 fours in his quickfire knock of 66 that came off 39 balls.
Yusuf Pathan hit a six and 2 fours in his unbeaten knock of 20 that came off just 10 balls.
The 100-run partnership between Dhoni and Raina came after India lost Yuvraj Singh and Sehwag in quick succession to be reduced to 131/3 in 22.4 overs.
India lost the third wicket when Dhoni flicked to deep mid-wicket and called Yuvraj for two who was not fast enough to beat the throw from Martin Guptill into the hands of his captain Daniel Vettori to run out the southpaw who scored 2 runs.
Sehwag smashed 77 off 56 balls before he was dismissed. Sachin edged a rising delivery into the hands of keeper Brendon McCullum after hitting 2 fours in his 20-runs for 23-balls. Sachin-Sehwag added 69-runs for first wicket partnership in 9.4 overs.
Play resumed to 38 overs per side after rain hit match after Sehwag and Tendulkar took India to 27/0 in 4.3 overs. Three bowlers can bowl eight overs, and two can bowl seven according to revised playing conditions. The first powerplay will be of 8 overs, the bowling powerplay will be of 4 overs and the batting powerplay will be of 3 overs.
Brief Score: India 273/4 (Dhoni 84*, Sehwag 77, Raina 66) beat New Zealand 162/9 (Guptill 64, Harbhajan 3-27) by 53 runs by D/L Method.
