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Following India's win over New Zealand in the first ODI, Indian pacer Gurnoor Brar revealed his game plan during the match, which fetched him three wickets, saying that he hit the hard length to take advantage of better bounce because of his height.
After some mixed bag outings in ODI cricket at home and in England, Brar finally came good with a spell of 3/44 in 9.2 overs against New Zealand, getting wickets of Tim Seifert and Tom Latham as a part of his spell. Gurnoor generated great pace and bounce on a fast-bowling paradise at Auckland. Speaking in a video by BCCI, Gurnoor said, "The atmosphere here is very good for bowling. The wickets are quite good. We had practiced here for four or five days earlier, so the wicket was similar. I just backed my length and my bowling style, and these are the results." "The game plan was that the straight boundary here is a little short. The six I conceded off my first over was on a slightly full-ish delivery. So my thought process was to pull the length back to make it hard to hit over square leg or fine leg. I discussed this with Arshdeep and Anshul, who had bowled on this wicket, and they suggested if we hit the hard length, I would get a better bounce because of my height," he added. Now in 10 matches, Brar has taken 17 wickets at an average of 36.76, with best figures of 3/27. An authoritative 74 by Virat Kohli and top-notch bowling spells from Arshdeep Singh and Anshul Kamboj were the highlights as India beat New Zealand in a rain-curtailed first ODI of the five-match series at Auckland on Wednesday. Arshdeep Singh spearheaded India's bowling attack with an impressive four-wicket haul, while Gurnoor Brar (3/44 in 9.2 overs) claimed three wickets and Anshul Kamboj (2/22 in 10 overs) chipped in with two scalps to dismantle New Zealand's batting line-up for 185. Virat dictated the game with authority as India gunned down a revised target of 143 runs needed in 32 overs easily. India's innings was marked by rain interruptions. (ANI)
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