![\"India's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUXOSE_AFP__20260111__92CC389__v1__HighRes__CricketIndNzlOdi_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nIndia’s Washington Sundar speaks with New Zealand’s captain Michael Bracewell.
\nPhoto: SHAMMI MEHRA\n<\/p>\n
Virat Kohli has hit 93 to help India chase down 301 in a tense four-wicket win over New Zealand in the first one-day international.<\/p>\n
The in-form Kohli struck his 77th ODI half-century but missed out on a ton as India slipped from 234-2 to 242-5 before they reached their target with six balls to spare in Vadodara.<\/p>\n
Skipper Shubman Gill made 56 in a 118-run second wicket stand with Kohli, who shared another strong partnership with Shreyas Iyer, who made 49.<\/p>\n
Late cameos by Harshit Rana (29) and wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul, who made an unbeaten 29 including the winning six, secured an Indian lead in the three-match series 1-0.<\/p>\n
New Zealand pace spearhead Kyle Jamieson stood out with figures of 4-41.<\/p>\n
Kohli led the chase as he went past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (28,016 runs) to become the second leading run-scorer in international cricket, behind fellow Indian Sachin Tendulkar (34,357).<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old Kohli only plays the ODI format after he and fellow stalwart Rohit Sharma, 38, retired from T20 and Test cricket.<\/p>\n
Rohit started strongly in his brisk 26 before he fell to New Zealand Jamieson.<\/p>\n
The packed crowd welcomed Kohli with a huge roar as the star batter joined Gill at the crease to take the attack to the opposition.<\/p>\n
He was ably supported by Gill, who has returned from an injury and a snub by the selectors from the T20 World Cup squad.<\/p>\n
Gill started slowly before he gained pace to raise his 16th ODI fifty but soon fell to rookie leg-spinner Adithya Ashok.<\/p>\n
Kohli was denied a ton by Jamieson, who got the batter caught out at extra cover. The former captain walked back to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Jamieson dismissed Ravindra Jadeja, for four, in the same over and in the next bowled Iyer to raise New Zealand’s hopes of a turnaround.<\/p>\n
India’s troubles increased with injury to Washington Sundar, who suffered a reported side strain while bowling his off-spin and came out to bat at number eight.<\/p>\n
Earlier, New Zealand posted 300-8 after Daryl Mitchell hit 84 to defy the Indian bowlers after the hosts elected to field first.<\/p>\n
Openers Devon Conway, who made 56, and Henry Nicholls (62) put on 117 but New Zealand suffered from a lack of major partnerships after their big opening stand.<\/p>\n
Pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj, Rana and Praisdh Krishna took two wickets each.<\/p>\n
The second match is on Wednesday in Rajkot.<\/p>\n
The series will be followed by five T20s ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
-AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India’s Washington Sundar speaks with New Zealand’s captain Michael Bracewell. Photo: SHAMMI MEHRA Virat Kohli has hit 93…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-228727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}