KARACHI: There is healthy respect between New Zealand and India as the 4-3 scoreline in their World Cup matchup indicates. Over the years both sides have got the better of each in conditions suiting their respective game.

In the inaugural tournament in 1975, an undefeated Glenn Turner century was the real difference as New Zealand sealed a tense four-wicket at Old Trafford. Then captaining his country, Turner guided his side to victory with 114 out of the final tally of 233-6 in 58.3 overs.

Brian McKechnie, who actually was a double international because he also represented his nation at rugby, was a decent seam bowler. He grabbed three wickets in the Manchester game and repeated the dose four years later at Headingley as New Zealand bowled the Indians for 182 before cruising to an eight-wicket success in 57 overs.

When the World Cup moved out of England to the subcontinent in 1987, India thrived in home conditions to win both fixtures in double round-robin competition. In the first match at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, aggressive 70s from Navjot Singh Sidhu and captain Kapil Dev, enabled post 252-7 in their 50 overs.

Despite Ken Rutherford and Andrew Jones batting well, New Zealand were restricted to 236-8 in the chase.

India were clinical in the return fixture in Nagpur where paceman Chetan Sharma became the first bowler to grab World Cup hat-trick when he dismissed Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield in taking 3-51 to help India curtail New Zealand to 221-9.

The rest of that match belonged to Sunil Gavaskar. The legendary opener scored his only ODI century — an uncharacteristic 103 from just 88 balls — as India raced to a nine-wicket victory in only 32.1 overs.

New Zealand returned to winning ways when the World Cup moved to southern hemisphere for the first time. In the windy city of Dunedin, the home side encountered no issues at the Carisbrook in chasing 231 on the back of a quickfire 77 from explosive opener Mark Greatbatch.

The Black Caps again prevailed at Trent Bridge in the 1999 Super Six encounter. After India had posted a competitive 251-6, New Zealand had to rely on the calming influence of Roger Twose, who contributed a 77-ball 60, to get home by five wickets.

Zaheer Khan was the star performer with four wickers in the 2003 fixture at the SuperSport Park in Centurion when India bundled out New Zealand for 146 before an unbroken partnership of 129 between Mohammad Kaif (68) and Rahul Dravid (51) inspired Saurav Ganguly’s side to a seven-wicket triumph.

Head-to-head summary

June 14, 1975 — Old Trafford, New Zealand won by four wickets

June 13, 1979 — Headingley, New Zealand won by eight wickets.

Oct 14, 1987 — Bangalore, India won by 16 runs

Oct 31, 1987 — Nagpur, India won by nine wickets.

March 12, 1992 — Dunedin, New Zealand won by four wickets

June 12, 1999 — Trent Bridge, New Zealand won by five wickets

March 14, 2003 — Centurion, India won by seven wickets.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019