2 Jun 2009

Black Caps beat India in practice match

11:27 am on 2 June 2009

The New Zealand cricketers have beaten India by nine runs in their Twenty20 World Cup warm-up match at Lord's.

Batting first New Zealand made 170 for seven with Ross Taylor scoring 41, Brendan McCullum 31 and Scott Styris 29.

Ishant Sharma took four wickets.

In reply India finished on 161 for six with Suresh Raina making 45, while Dan Vettori took three wickets.

The Black Caps' discipline in the death overs won them the match. They conceded only 24 off the last four overs, got their yorkers spot on and made scoring very difficult.

Vettori was part of the run drought at the end and he says the English conditions mean spin plays a big part in this form of the game.

New Zealand play Australia in another warmup match tomorrow while the tournament starts this weekend.

The Twenty20 World Cup starts next weekend.