Suryakumar Yadav struck a blistering half-century, as India held on to beat the Blackcaps by five wickets in the first of three Twenty20 internationals in Jaipur on Thursday (NZ time) and get Rahul Dravid's reign as head coach off to a winning start.
Chasing 165, India clinched victory with two balls to spare thanks to a career-best 62 from Yadav, who played some classy strokes after captain Rohit Sharma (48) and KL Rahul (15) had given the hosts a fine start with a 50-run opening stand.
The Blackcaps, fresh from their loss to Australia in the T20 World Cup final on Monday, fought back with three quick wickets but Rishabh Pant (17 not out) held his nerve to guide India home.
"It didn't come as easy... so great learning for the guys to understand what needs to be done and that it's not about power-hitting all the time," Sharma said after the game. "A good game for us missing a few players, giving an opportunity to other guys to show their ability."
Blackcaps skipper Tim Southee tried to take positives from the loss.
"You want to come out on the right side of close ones... but it's a game of fine margins," said Souithee. "The way we started with the ball wasn't what we wanted, did well to claw it back in the middle, took it deep and to the last over was a positive."
Earlier, Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled Daryl Mitchell with an in-swinger in the first over but New Zealand weathered that early blow, as Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman added 109 runs for the second wicket to help the visitors to 164/6.
Chapman led the assault with a 50-ball 63, while Guptill (70) held the innings together, smashing three fours and four sixes for his first T20 fifty against India.
After scoring 63 runs for Hong Kong against Oman back in 2015, Chapman is now the first player to score fifties for two different nations in international T20 cricket.
There were no other contributions of note as the Indian attack, led by Bhuvneshwar (2/24) and Ravichandran Ashwin (2/23), restricted the Kiwis with smart bowling in the second half of the innings.
Trent Boult, fresh from making the team of the tournament at the T20 World Cup, was the pick of the Blackcaps bowlers with 2/31 from his four-over spell.
Speester Lockie Ferguson made his first appearance since a calf injury ruled him out of the T20 World Cup, going wicketless at the expense of just 24 runs.
Stand-out allrounder Jimmy Neesham was a late scratch for the Black caps due to a stomach bug, bringing Rachin Ravindra into the starting XI.
The second game of the series is in Ranchi on Saturday.
Reuters/Newshub.
