By IANS
Johannesburg : New Zealand kept their nerve to carve a 10-run victory over India to make a winning start to their Group E campaign in the Twenty20 World Championships at the New Wanderers ground here Sunday.
Skipper Daniel Vettori turned in a match-winning performance with 4/20 to follow his 15 off five deliveries as India were restricted to 180 for nine chasing New Zealand’s 190 in 20 overs.
Vettori deservedly picked up the man of the match award along with the two precious points in the four-team league.
The other teams in Group E are South Africa and England, the top two going ahead to the knock-out semi-finals.
Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir gave the side a rollicking start knocking off 76 off 5.5 overs. Sehwag and Robin Uthappa fell in quick succession but Gambhir went to become the second Indian to score a half-century in the tournament.
But the Delhi opener fell soon after, and Yuvraj didn’t last long either. And when the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was sent back by Dinesh Karthik only to be run out for 24, the writing was on the wall.
Wickets kept falling at regular intervals and last pair of S. Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh needed to score 22 for victory off the final over bowled by Mark Gillespie. Sreesanth remained unbeaten with 19 as the Kiwis romped home by 10 runs.
Earlier, the Kiwis recovered from a disastrous start when they were five down for 91 in 12.4 overs before Craig McMillan (44) and Jacob Oram (35) took the score to 164.
Vettori smashed 15 before he was bowled by Rudra Pratap Singh’s first ball of the final over. Shane Bond, McMillan and Jeetan Patel were all run out in the over as New Zealand posted a challenging 190.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand:
Brendon McCullum c Gambhir b Harbhajan 45
Lou Vincent c Karthik b Rudra Pratap 3
Peter Fulton lbw b Harbhajan 21
Ross Taylor lbw b Yuvraj 11
Scott Styris run out 2
Craig McMillan run out 44
Jacob Oram c Rudra Pratap b Sreesanth 35
Daniel Vettori b Rudra Pratap 15
Shane Bond run out 4
Mark Gillespie not out 0
Jeetan Patel run out 0
Extras (lb6, w4) 10
Total (all out in 20 overs) 190
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Vincent, 1.6), 2-69 (Fulton, 8.6), 3-86 (McCullum 10.6) 4-89 (Taylor, 11.5), 5-91 (Styris, 12.4), 6-164 (Oram, 17.6), 7-185 (Vettori, 19.1), 8-189 (Bond, 19.3), 9-190 (McMillan, 19.5), 10-190 (Patel, 19.6)
Bowling:
S. Sreesanth 3-0-37-1
Rudra Pratap Singh 4-0-29-2 (2w)
Ajit Agarkar 4-0-40-0
Irfan Pathan 2-0-16-0 (1w)
Harbhajan Singh 4-0-24-2 (1w)
Yuvraj Singh 3-0-38-1
India:
Gautam Gambhir c McCullum b Vettori 51
Virender Sehwag c Styris b Oram 40
Robin Uthappa c & b Vettori 0
Mahendra Singh Dhoni run out 24
Yuvraj Singh c Taylor b Patel 5
Dinesh Karthik c Bond b Vettori 17
Irfan Pathan b Vettori 11
Ajit Agarkar run out 1
Harbhajan Singh c Vettori b Bond 7
S. Sreesanth not out 19
Rudra Pratap Singh not out 1
Extras (lb2, w2) 4
Total (for 9 wickets off 20 overs) 180
Fall of wickets: 1-76 (Sehwag, 5.5), 2-77 (Uthappa, 6.3), 3-104 (Gambhir, 10.5), 4-116 (Yuvraj 12.4), 5-128 (Dhoni, 13.5), 6-146 (Pathan, 16.2), 7-151 (Karthik, 16.6), 8-152 (Agarkar, 17.2), 9-163 (Harbhajan, 18.4)
Bowling:
Shane Bond 4-0-39-1
Mark Gillespie 4-0-42-0 (2w)
Jeetan Patel 3-0-38-1
Jacob Oram 2-0-14-1
Daniel Vettori 4-0-20-4
Scott Styris 3-0-25-0
Result: New Zealand won by 10 runs
Man of the Match: Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)
Toss: India won toss, chose to field
Umpires: Mark Benson (England) and Nigel Llong (England)
TV umpire: Darryl Harper (Australia)
Match referee: Chris Broad (England)