Indian National Cricket Team starts its ODI series against the home team, the New Zealand National Cricket Team, with pure dominance in Auckland. The cloudy sky and the rain during the match tried to spoil the party, but the bowlers of both teams tried to make the most of the conditions. After a high-scoring 5-match T20I series, the cricket world witnessed thriving fast bowlers on November 4.

New Zealand faced a batting collapse going to bat first in the match. There were only a few players, like the opener Tim Seifert and the No.11 batter Blair Tickner, who were promising against the Indian pace bowling attack. After today's match, the Blackcaps skipper Mitchell Santner explained where his team lacked the most against the Men in Blue.

India defeated New Zealand in a low-scoring ODI match

With Blair Tickner's explosive 34-run knock as the team's No.11 batter, New Zealand secured a total of 185 runs against all ten wickets. In a 50-over match, defending a target of 186 sounds beyond possible for the bowlers, especially in modern-day cricket.

But there was a ray of hope for the Mitchell Santner-led team because of the conditions. Using the overcast conditions, Kyle Jamieson got rid of Rohit Sharma on the very first over of the second innings.

India had to lose five wickets to get the paltry total. Because of the rain, the target was reduced to 143, and the total number of overs was reduced from fifty to 32. The 113-run partnership between the India skipper Shubman Gill (37) and Virat Kohli (74) confirmed the winner of the match.

Mitchell Santner praises his fast bowlers

At the presentation ceremony, Mitchell Santner credited his fast bowlers with challenging the Indian batters despite having a low score on the scoreboard. He mentioned that the bounce at Eden Park made it difficult for the batters.

"I think when you try to fight the bounce at Eden Park, it can be quite hard. I think the way they kind of used it a little bit more, and Shreyas was trying to go more fine with the shorter balls. And yeah, obviously bounced a lot, and after the rain it kind of skidded on nicely. So yeah, a few short balls out there," Mitchell Santner said, as quoted by Cricbuzz.

"It was easy for us to kind of roll over there after the start they got. So credit to the fast bowlers to keep backing it up. So yeah, I think we found some good stuff at the end of the game there, and we can kind of go on to Wellington," the New Zealand skipper said, praising his fast bowlers.

Mitchell Santner on the nature of the pitch

For the defeat, Santner did not blame his batting unit for putting up a small total. He observed the pitch was a lot faster than they had expected. As the batters failed to adapt to the extra pace and the bounce of the pitch, they lacked in batting.

"Yeah, I think the pitch probably bounced and, you know, it was probably a little bit faster than we kind of expected at Eden Park. I think we just probably didn't adapt as quickly as we could. And with some good bowling from India as well," Mitchell Santner continued.