Shreyas Iyer slams maiden century against New Zealand in Hamilton
Shreyas Iyer's impressive run in ODIs continued as he hit his maiden ODI century on Wednesday in Hamilton against New Zealand in the first ODI of the three-match series.
Iyer, who started the New Zealand tour with an unbeaten 58 in Auckland in the first T20I of the three-match series, scored his century in the 43rd over of the game with a single.
The 25-year-old has been a regular in the Indian middle-order after the 2019 World Cup in England and made most of his opportunities count. With Iyer's arrival, India's middle-order woes have been solved for the time being and the Mumbaikar looks in no mood to give his spot away.
At Seddon Park, Iyer walked in to bat after the fall of debutant Mayank Agarwal's wicket in the in the 9th over and went from strength to strength. Iyer took his time to settle in on a pitch tailor-made for batting and once he got his eyes in, he was in full flow.
Iyer at first built a solid base with captain Virat Kohli and once the latter fell for 51, he took over and struck another century stand along with KL Rahul as India marched on towards a big score.
The stylish Mumbaikar played a flawless innings for most part barring once, when he was dropped by Colin de Grandhomme. Iyer hit one straight to long-on off Mitchell Santner in the 41st over but de Grandhomme made a mess of it and dropped it in the end. Post the missed chance, Iyer stepped on the acclerator and hit two boundaries to rally on towards his maiden century.
Iyer in the end, pushed a ball off Santner towards covers to reach his century.
This is the first time since 2018 a Indian batsman batting at No.4 has scored a century. The last batsman to do so was Ambati Rayudu in 2018.
