The Indian cricket team lost their first match of the ongoing New Zealand tour as the hosts defeated the Indian cricket team by 7 wickets in the 1st ODI match on Friday. Coming out to bat first, Shikhar Dhawan and Co. posted a total of 306/7 in 50 overs, thanks to the half-centuries by captain Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, and Shubman Gill. Shreyas Iyer top-scored with 80 off 76 balls for Team India in the match.
Chasing the target, the Kiwis chased down the target of 307 runs, with wicket-keeper batter Tom Latham hitting his career-best score of 145* off 104 balls and captain Kane Williamson playing a crucial knock of 94 runs off 98 balls.
After the game, several experts and former cricketers slammed India’s approach in the powerplay in white-ball cricket, calling it too conservative. However, on Friday, when Iyer was asked about the same, whether team India should follow England’s batting template and whether he sees ODI cricket as an extension of T20 cricket. He said:
“Abhi seedha jaake T20 mode me toh nehi khel sakte (We can’t play in the T20 mode straightaway in fifty overs because there is more time).”
“One can plan his batting looking at the wicket and deciding in his mind what a par score would be. One needs to adapt. Fifty overs can change from time to time. Sometimes there can be sunset, there can be dew on other times and you don’t know how the wicket will play,” he continued.
However, Iyer was content with the target team India had set in the match despite the Kiwis chasing it down with 17 balls to spare. He said: “Reaching 307 from the position that we were in was a commendable effort,” he said in the presser. “Few things didn’t go our way. It is a learning curve for us and hopefully we can go back and introspect and come back with new ideas,”
