New Zealand's tour of India started on a good note on Friday as almost all their batsmen chipped in with runs on the first day of a three-day warm-up match against Mumbai XI in Delhi. Tom Latham (55 retired out) and skipper Kane Williamson (50) set the tone on a batting-friendly Feroz Shah Kotla wicket. Mumbai's weakened bowling attack struggled to make inroads but medium-pacer Balwinder Sandhu stood out with figures of 2/21. The Kiwis declared at 324/7. In reply, the defending Ranji Trophy champions were at 29/1 when stumps were called.
Going defensive backfired severely in New Zealand's recently concluded tour of South Africa and the Kiwis came out all guns blazing in Delhi. Martin Guptill's poor run continued with Sandhu getting some swing and scalping him. Latham and Williamson were at ease with the bowling attack, bringing up an 85-run stand in 107 balls. Vishal Dabholkar, the spin spearhead for Mumbai in the game, went for plenty as the batsmen decided to step out at regular intervals.
Latham retired out after a stroke-filled half-century. The disciplined Sandhu had removed Williamson, and like Guptill, he was caught behind by Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare. Ross Taylor, Mitchell Santner, Mark Craig, and Ish Sodhi got easy runs. As many as 10 sixes were struck by the New Zealanders, and got their runs at a fair clip. In reply, Mumbai lost Jay Bista on the third ball of the innings with left-armer Trent Boult drawing first blood. Arman Jaffer played some confident shots before the close of play.
Brief scores:
New Zealanders 324/7 declared (Tom Latham 55 retired out, Kane Williamson 50, Mitchell Santner 45; Balwinder Sandhu 2/21) lead Mumbai 29/1 (Arman Jaffer 24 not out) by 295 runs.