India 227 (Hasabnis 42, Deepti 41, Amelia Kerr 4-42, Jess Kerr 3-49) beat New Zealand 168 (Halliday 39, Green 31, Radha 3-35, Thakor 2-26) by 59 runs
New Zealand were on the high of a maiden Women's T20 World Cup win and their spinners combined to take seven of the ten Indian wickets to restrict them to 227. But India's ODI debutants, Tejal Hasabnis and Saima Thakor, shone in crucial moments to help them make a winning start to the three-match series against New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
Hasabnis, the Maharashtra middle-order batter, played a steady innings at No. 6 walking in after India were in a spot of bother. She made 42 off 64 balls and was involved in a 61-run partnership. Then Thakor, Mumbai's bowling allrounder who played for UP Warriorz in WPL 2024, delivered telling blows with the ball to help dismiss New Zealand for 168 and help India go 1-0.
Amelia Kerr and Eden Carson continued their superb form from the T20 World Cup. Amelia, the Player of the Tournament, returned 4 for 42 while Carson, who headed into the title-clash on the back of two Player-of-the-Match performances, picked up two of her own. With Suzie Bates also bowling five overs and returning a wicket, it seemed as if India had left a few runs on a surface that looked good for batting.
That looked to be case even more when Georgia Plimmer got off to a flier. She hit a flurry of boundaries off Thakor and Renuka Singh, both of whom erred by bowling on her pads. The idea was not all wrong - Thakor was getting the ball to shape away, and hence was trying for the magic ball. There was merit in her bowling plan after it paid dividends on her third ball in internationals. She got one to nip away ever-so slightly to entice a poke from Bates and feather an edge behind.
Renuka used the width of the bowling crease to bowl the in-anglers but it played into the hands of Plimmer and Lauren Down, batting at No. 3 after Amelia was seen limping towards the end of the bowling innings. But Deepti Sharma then used her experience to prise out Plimmer. She slowed the flighted ball down and made the batter force the issue, only for her to chip a return catch back.
Deepti's street-smartness then helped India see the back of New Zealand captain Sophie Devine. Devine, who stepped down from T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup, pushed one towards Deepti but stood out of her crease. Deepti threw the ball back at wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia even as Devine took a few steps back, but no part of her foot was inside the crease.
Radha then managed to have Down miscue one to mid-off an over after a leading edge landed short of the same region. Which is when the real domination came from New Zealand with the bat. Brooke Halliday and Maddy Green combined to play a clinical game. They used the crease to manufacture boundaries regularly, most of them behind square on either side.
Green first scooped one fine down leg, cut one fiercely past backward point and then sliced one over the same region. Halliday even used the reverse sweep early. They added 49 off 63 balls for the fifth wicket. Smriti Mandhana, captaining India after Harmanpreet Kaur missed out due to a niggle, brought in Shafali Verma in a bid to change a few things but she was hit for a couple of fours in an over.
Thakor then broke through, in the third over of her second spell. She got one to stop on Halliday and managed to catch hold of the caught and bowled chance. Three balls later, Mandhana nailed a direct hit at the striker's end to send Green back. And there was no looking back from there for India. They struck regularly, with only Amelia's 55-ball stand with Isabella Gaze for the eighth wicket delaying the inevitable.
It was not the perfect start for Mandhana, who was leading India in an ODI for the first time. She fell cheaply, cutting one straight to backward point. But Shafali looked to bring a gear that we hardly saw at the T20 World Cup, particularly targeting Jess Kerr. She used the pull shot to good effect and then dispatched a length ball over the sightscreen. But she pulled Carson's first ball straight to square leg to fall cheaply.
A couple of 20-something partnerships followed - first between Bhatia and Dayalan Hemalatha, who batted at No. 4 in Harmanpreet's absence, and then between Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues. It was only when Rodrigues combined with Hasabnis that there came a sense of stability in the Indian batting.
The pair looked particularly at ease against spin, maneuvering the ball in the outfield to keep the scorecard ticking. Hasabnis showed her prowess against spin specifically when she went deep in the crease against Amelia's legspin to slice it past backward point. The pair increased the pace as they went along in their 61-run partnership of just 70 balls.
But Rodrigues missed a clip off Bates and was adjudged lbw, the review returning an umpire's call on impact. Then on 42, Hasabnis could not resist charging at a tossed-up delivery from Amelia and was stumped. Deepti, who walked in at No. 7, showed a lot of intent from the start. She hit a couple of fours and a six in her 41, her best score in ODIs since September 2022. Her innings capsulated the theme of India's innings - that of batters getting starts but not carrying on. Five India batters made more than 30 but none crossed 42.
India faced 125 dots in the 44.3 overs they batted; New Zealand faced 141 in their 40.4. But eventually, it came down to the team that made fewer mistakes and India, despite finishing on what can at best be termed a par score, took the honours that mattered in the series-opener, winning just their second ODI in the last eight outings against New Zealand.
