Napier served as the venue for 1st ODI between the two highly anticipated sides in India and New Zealand. Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bat first in the bright sunny conditions present at McLean park.
The hosts lost early wicket in the form of Martin Guptill who fell to Mohammed Shami. This was the 100th ODI wicket for Shami and in the process, he also became the fastest Indian to 100 ODI wickets.
This was his 56th game in the format, having made his ODI debut in 2013 against Pakistan.
Shami surpassed the likes of Irfan Pathan who reached the 100-wicket mark in 59 ODIs. Mumbai pacer Zaheer Khan reached the same mark in 65 matches, Ajit Agarkar in 67 matches and Javagal Srinath in 68 matches.
Shami has almost cemented his place in the Indian team for 2019 world cup with his dominant run in past one year. He was out of the Indian limited overs team following the success of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah but his impressive performance is certain of making him the third pacer in the team.
He was named the man of the match in the 1st ODI against New Zealand and ecstatically he said that he has grown in confidence.
“You saw in 2018, I played regular Test Cricket. The confidence level is very high. I am bowling with the same speed that I used to earlier. Hope I can continue this,” he said.
Shami also spoke about his chances in the world cup and said that he is not thinking too far ahead. He said that his fitness and performance will matter when the team will be picked for 2019 world cup.
