India produced a dominating performance by winning the first T20I at Feroshah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson elected to field and Indian openers added 158 runs in 16.2 overs which set the platform for a big total. Chasing the target of 203, Indian bowlers showed great discipline and restricted the visitors to 149 for 8 in 20 overs.
New Zealand captain Kane Willamson won the toss and elected to field first. The Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma played with positive intent putting pressure on the New Zealand bowlers. In the first six overs, both openers posted 46 runs. After that Dhawan and Rohit continued to smash the Kiwis. Dhawan completed his half-century in 37 balls while Rohit Sharma completed his half-century off 42 balls.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan made the batting look easy. Both of them added 158 runs in 16.2 overs. Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed 80 by Ish Sodhi. Few balls later, Ish Sodhi dismissed Hardik Pandya. Captain Kohli played a cameo knock of 26 in 11 balls. Rohit Sharma played a great knock of 80 and was dismissed in 19th over. In the last 19 balls, Rohit Sharma scored 57 runs and With great shots in the last over, India posted 202 for 3 in 20 overs.
Chasing the target of 203, the New Zealand openers Martin Guptill was dismissed earlier by Yuzvendra Chahal in 2nd over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Collin Munro in the 4th over. At the end of first six overs, New Zealand scored just 33 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. Tom Latham and Kane Williamson added 32 runs for the 3rd wicket. New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals. Tom Latham was the top scorer with 39 runs. Mitchell Santer remained not out on 27. New Zealand made 149 for 8 in 20 overs.
India 202 for 3 in 20 overs ( Rohit Sharma 80, Shikhar Dhawan 80, Virat Kohli 26*. Ish Sodhi 2/25) beat New Zealand 149 for 8 in 20 overs ( Tom Latham 39, Mitchell Santer 27*, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/26, Axar Patel 2/20) by 53 runs.
Captain Virat Kohli said: Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan opening partnership was outstanding. The catch Hardik Pandya took is the best one I have seen for a long time. Ashish Nehra has played for 19 years is a great achievement. Hardik Pandya at number 6 and Axar Patel at 7 gives us plenty of options.
Man of the match Shikhar Dhawan said: The wicket was not easy to bat on. I batted with lot of positive intent as Rohit Sharma started slowly. I and Rohit Sharma made the batting look easy and made sure that we reached a competitive total.
India leads the series 1-0. The 2nd T20I will be played at Rajkot on 4th November.