Guwahati, Nov 28: New Zealand stand-in skipper Ross Taylor admitted that Virat Kohli’s hundred took the game away from the visitors. Taylor, who scored a fluent 66, added that losing too many wickets in the middle overs did his side in.

Speaking after his side’s 40-run loss to India in the first ODI, Taylor said that Indians got off to a good start and then the middle-order batsmen cashed-in on the brisk start.

Excerpts:

On India’s batting performance:

Yes, I guess you would always want to win a toss and if bowling first would want to get early wickets. I think Gautam [Gambhir] and [Murali] Vijay batted well in the start and then Virat [Kohli] played a good knock. He took the game away from us.

On the track and losing wickets regularly:

I think it nipped a bit but probably not as much. I think probably in the middle stage we needed to get some wickets. I think India did well to get wickets at regular intervals. It is a disappointing result but hopefully we can pick ourselves up and do better in the next game.

On New Zealand’s chase:

I think we needed to get off to a good start. The way Martin Guptill batted was good but I think we lost two or four wickets in the middle which pushed us on the backfoot. Nathan [McCullum] and Kyle Mills batted us back into the game and got us close.

On Kyle Mills’ 32 off 28:

Yeah, I think he hit the boundaries. Kyle has been in some pretty good form.

On the loss:

I think you need to win the first game to get the momentum. We hope to pick ourselves and perform better in the coming matches.