India sink to new low against the Kiwis

New Zealand win by a staggering 200 runs in the opening game of the tri-series with India all out for 88 in their run chase.

Ross Taylor played a captain's knock for a second-string New Zealand side yesterday.

An inspired bowling performance from New Zealand helped secure a mammoth 200-run win over India in the first one-day international of the tri-series at Dambulla. Daryl Tuffey notched up figures of three for 34, while Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills snapped up two wickets apiece as India's chase of 289 embarrassingly folded up at 88 - with no fewer than six catches coming in the slip cordon. A 190-run partnership from Ross Taylor, the New Zealand skipper (95), and Scott Styris (89) for the fourth wicket after the Black Caps had been struggling at 28 for three had earlier laid the groundwork for the bonus-point win. "We are happy with the way we came back," said Taylor, who was named man of the match. "We decided not to lose too many wickets early on and get a partnership going. We thought it would be great to reach 250-260 and so we were very happy to reach 288." India had started reasonably in reply. Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik, the openers, posted 39 for the first wicket before falling in successive deliveries to Mills and Tuffey respectively, precipitating the loss of all 10 wickets for 49 runs.

Tuffey notched up two more as Rohit Sharma was caught by Taylor at first slip in the 10th over and Suresh Raina failed to negotiate a wide delivery to be snaffled by second slip Styris. From an attempted a quick single off a Tuffey bouncer, confusion in calling between MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh gave the paceman the chance to catch the India captain well short of his crease. And Yuvraj followed his captain shortly, caught at slip off Andy McKay, and the tail soon crumbled. Praveen Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja, India's top scorer with 20, soon followed the trend of finding slip fielders, Oram and debutant Kane Williamson doing the damage, as Ashish Nehra's wicket off the bowling of Mills brought the match to an end. Earlier, India's pacemen ran through the New Zealand top order, picking up three wickets in the first seven overs. Praveen snapped up Martin Guptill and Williamson for 11 and nought respectively, while Nehra squeezed out Peter Ingram (12).

Styris and Taylor steadied the New Zealand ship thereafter, the latter bringing up his 16th ODI 50 with a quick single off Sehwag, while Styris - who had prodded the duo's stand past the 100-run mark - marked his 25th half-century a few overs later. Styris looked intent on reaching his century before his partner, smashing Pragyan Ojha for a huge six over long on, but was clean bowled just two balls later. Nehra - who ended with figures of four for 47 - struck a major blow in the 43rd over, trapping Taylor leg before and the Black Caps' tail petered out within the next six overs. A frustrated Dhoni said: "Taylor and Styris batted really well. We got a couple of chances, but could not capitalise on them. When we went in to bat, their tall bowlers got a lot of bounce which put us in an awkward situation. We are very disappointed but the tournament is still on." * Agencies

New Zealand: Peter Ingram c Dhoni b Nehra 12 Martin Guptill c Dhoni b Kumar 11 Ross Taylor lbw b Nehra 95 Kane Williamson b Kumar 0 Scott Styris b Ojha 89 Jacob Oram lbw b Nehra 14 Grant Elliott st Dhoni b Singh 7 Gareth Hopkins c Karthik b Kumar 10 Daryl Tuffey c Ojha b Nehra 19 Kyle Mills run out 9 Andy McKay not out 0 Extras: (1b, 12lb, 9w) 22 Total (all out, 48.5 overs) 288 Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-27, 3-28, 4-218, 5-236, 6-241, 7-254, 8-277, 9-288, 10-288. Bowling: Praveen Kumar 9-3-43-3 (1w), Ashish Nehra 9.5-1-47-4 (3w), Abhimanyu Mithun 4-0-24-0 (3w), Pragyan Ojha 10-0-58-1 (1w), Ravindra Jadeja 9-0-63-0, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-23-1, Virender Sehwag 3-0-17-0 (1w). India: Dinesh Karthik lbw b Tuffey 14 Virender Sehwag c Hopkins b Mills 19 Rohit Sharma c Taylor b Tuffey 4 Yuvraj Singh c Taylor b McKay 5 Suresh Raina c Styris b Tuffey 6 Mahendra S Dhoni run out (Tuffey) 2 Ravindra Jadeja c Styris b Williamson 20 Pravin Kumar c Taylor b Oram 1 Abhimanyu Mithun c Taylor b Oram 4 Ashish Nehra c Oram b Mills 4 Pragyan Ojha not out 0 Extras: (9w) 9 Total (for all out; 29.3 overs) 88 Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-39, 3-44, 4-50, 5-53, 6-62, 7-67, 8-82, 9-84, 10-88 Bowling: Mills 6.3-2-26-2 (w1), Tuffey 8-1-34-3 (w5), McKay 6-0-11-1 (w2), Oram 6-0-15-2 (w1), Williamson 3-1-2-1.