An incredible century from Tom Latham and Kane Williamson's unbeaten 94 helped New Zealand beat India by seven wickets as they comfortably chased down 307 with 17 balls to spare. It wasn't the best of starts from the hosts, but Latham, who usually opens for New Zealand but batted at No.5 on Friday, combined with the skipper in superb fashion as the pair stitched an unbeaten 221-run stand to put New Zealand in front in the three-match series. Following the loss in the series opener in Auckland, former England captain Michael Vaughan took a brutal dig at captain Shikhar Dhawan and head coach VVS Laxman.
India played the opener with just five bowling options - Arshdeep Singh, Uman Malik, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal. And the tactic had backfired on them miserably.
Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer hailed Williamson and Latham for their respective knocks but also opined that Inda missed the trick with the bowling.
“Well played @BLACKCAPS Made 300 look like 270. Williamson all class as always but Latham stole the show. Not easy for an opener to move down the order and still be successful. India missed a trick by just playing 5 bowlers. #NZvIND,” Jaffer tweeted.
In response to Jaffer's tweet, Vaughan lashed out at the Indian think tank, calling them old fashioned.
{{/usCountry}}In response to Jaffer's tweet, Vaughan lashed out at the Indian think tank, calling them old fashioned.
{{/usCountry}}“They are a dated ODI team .. you need at least 6 if not 7 bowling options …,” he replied.
In the bench fo India were Deepak Hooda, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav and the visitors might be tempted to make that change in the second ODI which will take place in Hamilton on Sunday.