Black Caps take Twenty20 opener

Brendon McCullum blasts his way to 56 in New Zealand's seven wicket Twenty20 win

New Zealand drew first blood in their series with India with a seven-wicket win over India in the opening Twenty20 match in Christchurch.

Set a target of 163, the hosts reached it with eight balls to spare as Jacob Oram smacked a huge six to bring up the winning runs.

Brendon McCullum was the top scorer for the home side with 54 off 49 balls.

Having seen his opening partner Jesse Ryder trapped leg before by Ishant Sharma in just the second over, McCullum went about constructing an innings firstly with Martin Guptill, who was lucky not to be given out lbw first ball, Ross Taylor and finally Oram.

After his lucky escape it was Guptill who cut loose first as he regularly found the boundary then took to Irfan Pathan in the sixth over, smacking the left-armer for consecutive sixes.

But just nine runs shy of his half-century he was trapped leg before by Harbhajan Singh to leave New Zealand 56 for two.

But Taylor and McCullum took the match away from Indian with a fifty partnership as they worked the singles and punished the bad balls.

Taylor eventually went for a 20-ball 31 when he was bowled by Zaheer Khan leaving Oram, playing as a batsman only on his return from injury, and McCullum to complete a successful run chase.

McCullum brought up his half-century in the 19th over with a six off Yusuf Pathan, who like his brother Irfan was expensive, and Oram wrapped up the innings with his second six four balls later.

Earlier, Suresh Raina had held the India innings together as wickets fell at regular intervals, particularly through the middle of the order.

Tim Southee bowls Harbhajan Singh for 21 from the last ball of the visitors' 162 for eight in Christchurch

Raina’s unbeaten 61 in 43 balls and a vital partnership of 61 runs with Harbhajan at the end of the innings helped the visitors to post a reasonable total.

When Virender Sehwag unleashed consecutive sixes off the first three balls he faced it looked like it would be a tough night in the field for New Zealand as Tim Southee conceded 19 runs off the first over.

But Iain O’Brien struck back for the home side with the last ball of the second over to get the vital wicket of Gautam Gambhir (six) then bowled Sehwag (26) with the first ball of his next.

That had India 32 for two which quickly became 61 for five as Rohit Sharma (seven), Yuvraj Singh (one) and captain MS Dhoni (two) fell in quick succession.

A good piece of fielding by Oram ended Yusuf Pathan’s innings after he had smacked three successive sixes off Nathan McCullum in his eight-ball 20.

Irfan Pathan was next to go, caught by Nathan McCullum off the bowling of Ryder and India were struggling at 101 for seven in the 14th over.

But Harbhajan and Raina showed plenty of composure and creativity as they held firm with Raina bringing up his half-century in the penultimate over, his 54 taking just 38 balls and including five sixes and a four.

Harbhajan then showed some nice touches to claim successive boundaries in the final over before being bowled by Southee for 21 with the last ball of the match.