Questions were beginning to be raised over skipper Kane Williamson’s ability to score quick runs, which appears silly about one of cricket’s Mount Rushmore batsmen.
Against this backdrop and returning to the world’s number one ODI rankings, the New Zealand team has performed in a way that will have to silence some of those critics for at least a few days.
New Zealand, who were 88 for three in the 20th over in their chase, needed aggression from the middle order to chase themselves down the target. It is learnt that Williams and wicketkeeper Tom Latham were ready for the job.
Though the required run rate had gone above eight overs at one stage, they stayed calm, bowling strike overs with singles and punishing loose deliveries with boundaries when appropriate.
Both scored half-centuries as Latham slowly captained and scored 25 off Shardul Thakur in the 40th over to score his seventh ODI century. Both scored half-centuries as Latham slowly captained and scored 25 off Shardul Thakur in the 40th over to score his seventh ODI century.
The pair added 221 runs which is the best attempt ever for the fourth wicket for New Zealand, breaking Latham’s 200-run knock with Ross Taylor against the same opposition in 2017. In the end, he achieved his target with 17 balls to spare.
“I think it was a competitive score at halfway,” Kane Williamson said. “But as we know, at this ground at Eden Park, if you build a partnership, you can chase down anything. “It was an incredible innings from Tom Latham.
We were talking in the middle, and discussing going through this over and that over… And then he removed the switch. “It was one of the most special innings I’ve seen and it was nice to see him play at the other end,” Kane Williamson said.
India seemed to have controlled the match well, as their top order made full use of New Zealand’s pace attack and some poor fielding, which gave the batsmen a reprieve.