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Jaipur, November 17

Rohit Sharma’s T20 captaincy and Rahul Dravid’s coaching stint with the Indian team got off to an exciting start here tonight as the hosts defeated New Zealand by five wickets with two balls to spare in the first T20I.

Sharma led from the front with a 36-ball 48 and Suryakumar Yadav smashed three sixers in his 40-ball 62 to power the Indians in their chase of 165 for victory.

Sharma added 50 runs for the first wicket off only 31 balls with KL Rahul (15 off 14 balls), who perished when he was caught at deep square leg while going for a six off left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner. The fall of Rahul brought Yadav to the crease and he and Sharma added 59 off 49 balls as Santner and first-change bowler Lockie Ferguson slowed down the run rate a little.

Sharma, who struck five fours and two sixers, fell to a clever change of pace by Trent Boult, failing to read a slower bouncer and giving a catch to Rachin Ravindra at short backward square. India needed 56 off 40 balls at this stage, but Yadav and Rishabh Pant tilted the scale in India’s favour with 15 runs off the 16th over, from Tim Southee.

The fall of Yadav and then Shreyas Iyer (5) made India’s task difficult, and with 10 needed off the final over, debutant Venkatesh Iyer hit a four before being dismissed trying a reverse-sweep. But Pant hit the fourth ball over long-off for four to complete the job.

Ashwin puts on brakes

Earlier, entertaining half-centuries by Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman took New Zealand to 164/6.

Guptill smashed 70 off 42 balls and Chapman made 63 off 50 to ensure 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 2/23 in four overs while senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with 2/24 in four overs, too got his swing back.

Expecting heavy dew later in the evening, Sharma opted to field. Venkatesh was handed a debut while New Zealand made four changes to the XI that played the T20 World Cup final on Sunday.

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 of balls that shaped away from Guptill, he bowled a beautiful outswinger from length to breach Daryl Mitchell’s defence. New Zealand reached 41/1 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 sixth over to give the innings much needed momentum. India had the run rate under control until 10 overs with New Zealand reaching 65/1. Three big overs followed with Chapman and Guptill putting their foot on the pedal. Chapman brought up his first 50 for New Zealand, having played earlier for Hong Kong.

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 123/3 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. India did well in the last five overs to concede 41 runs, also taking three wickets. — Agencies

Brief scores: New Zealand: 164/6 (Guptill 70, Chapman 63; Ashwin 2/23, Bhuvneshwar 2/24); India: 166/5 in 19.4 overs (Suryakumar 62, Rohit 48; Boult 2/31).