Jaipur: Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman's entertaining half-centuries took New Zealand to 164 for six against India in the opening T20 International here on Wednesday.
Guptill (70 off 42) and Chapman (63 off 50) ensured New Zealand were well placed for a 180 plus total on a batting beauty but Ravichandran Ashwin's double strike in one over put the brakes on the scoring rate.
Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers for India, taking two for 23 in four overs while senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/24 in four overs) too got his swing back.
Expecting heavy dew later in the evening, Rohit opted to field. Venkatesh Iyer was expectedly handed a debut while New Zealand made four changes to the playing eleven that played the T20 World Cup final on Sunday as part of workload management.
Bhuvneshwar, who looked far from his best in the T20 World Cup, got his trademark swing in the very first over of the match.
After a couple that shaped away from Guptill, he bowled a beautiful outswinger from length to breach Daryl Mitchell's defence.
New Zealand reached 41 for one in the powerplay after a 15-run over from Deepak Chahar, who was guilty of bowling too short or too full.
The Hong Kong-born Chapman, who began his innings with an aerial cover drive, whipped and pulled Chahar for a four and six in the 6th over to give the innings much needed momentum.
India had the run rate under control until 10 overs with New Zealand reaching 65 for one.
Three big overs followed with Chapman and Guptill putting their foot on the pedal.
Chapman collected a four and six off Axar Patel in another 15-run over to bring up his first fifty for New Zealand, having played earlier for Hong Kong.
Guptill too looked in ominous touch at the other end as he deposited a slower one from Siraj over long-off.
Ashwin was brought back into the attack in the 14th and he struck twice at a timely juncture for his team with New Zealand getting to 123 for three in 15 overs. He found the stumps of Chapman with a tossed up off-spinner while Glenn Phillips had no clue about his carrom ball.
However, Guptill was going strong at the other end and the best shot of his entertaining knock came in the 16th over when dispatched Bhuvneshwar for a flat six over deep extra cover, indicating that surface was really good for batting.
With Guptill in full flow, even 200 seemed on the card but the opener was caught in the deep in the 18th over.
India did well in the last five overs to concede 41 runs besides taking three wickets.
PTI
