It was indeed a dream come true moment for Umran Malik when he received his debut ODI cap from VVS Laxman on Friday morning in Auckland. The young pace sensation became the 249th cricketer to represent India in the format. Since India batted first against New Zealand at the Eden Park, the cricket fanatics had to wait for an entire innings to see the right-arm quick in action. When he came into the attack, he started firing rockets right from the first over.
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He clocked 149.6 kph in his first over and then gradually increased his pace. The Kiwi batters could hardly see the ball coming from his hands and the visual probably fazed further when the speedometer showed 153.1 kph. But before notching his top speed, Umran pocketed his maiden ODI wicket by getting Devon Conway caught behind.
Umran achieved the milestone in the 15th over of New Zealand’s chase. He came rushing at a bullet speed and bowled a fuller one wide of off. Conway chased for a drive but what he could manage was a feather edge that carried straight to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. The stumper pouched it with ease and the speedster got a wicket to his credit.
The Jammu pacer returned in the 20th over and sent Daryl Mitchell packing with another beautiful delivery, pitched wide of the off stump. The New Zealand all-rounder threw his hands at it, miscuing it towards deep point where Deepak Hooda took a safe catch.
Earlier, Shreyas Iyer top-scored with 80 off 76 balls while captain Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill struck 72 and 50, respectively, in their fourth hundred-plus stand as an opening pair this year to propel India to a challenging 306/7 in 50 overs.
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On a drop-in pitch where batting wasn’t easy initially, India were aided by Dhawan and Gill having a solid opening stand of 124 in 23.1 overs after overcoming a slow start. Despite India losing four wickets for 36 runs in the middle stage of the innings, Iyer got India running towards a huge total by stitching a 94-run stand with Sanju Samson (36).
(With Agency Inputs)
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