India’s contemporary batting legend and its captain Virat Kohli’s record-breaking 31st century in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) went in vain yesterday at Mumbai as the rampaging Kiwis secured an easy 6-wicket victory over the hosts in the first of the three-match ODI series between the two countries.

Dubbed by the cricket media as the ‘chase-master’ for the many centuries he had scored en route to taking his home to victory while batting second, Virat came to the party within half-an-hour of resumption of play as India lost its opener Shikhar Dhawan very early.  Kohli stitched together partnerships first with Dinesh Karthik and later with all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to take India to 280/8 in their allotted quota of 50 overs.

Kohli’s 31st century in his 200th ODI match yesterday took him to second in the all-time list of highest century makers.  He now occupies the second slot after over-taking Australia’s Ricky Ponting, who has 30 centuries.  ‘God of Cricket’ Sachin Tendulkar tops the list with 49 centuries.  Kohli’s ODI record now stands at 8888 runs from 200 ODIs with an astonishing record of 55.55.

However, India’s new-ball bowlers didn’t repeat what their New Zealand counter-parts did and allowed the Kiwis to get off to a great start which they capitalized despite losing 3 wickets for 80 runs.  Wicket-keeper batsman Tom Latham and veteran Ross Taylor stitched together a match-winning 200 run partnership for the fourth wicket.  Ross Taylor fell at the stroke of victory with Henry Nichols hitting the winning boundary.  Latham remained not out after completing a sparkling century.

New Zealand now leads the three-match series 1-0 with the two teams meeting again on Wednesday for the second ODI.