Mount Maunganui, Nov 13 (IANS) Moments after being dropped twice in the same over, Will Young put forth a cheeky to Virat Kohli: ‘Had he ever been let off two balls in a row?’ Kohli laughed and replied ‘No’. Young then shrugged off his early nerves and went on to make 125 in the fourth ODI at the Bay Oval on Friday.

Rohit Sharma at slip and wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan dropped Young on consecutive deliveries off Auqib Nabi in the second over. Young went on to reach his fifth ODI hundred and his first against India, as New Zealand posted 333 in their 50 overs.

“A little bit of relief, firstly, but no, it’s been amazing to spend some time in the middle. Obviously a little bit of fortune early in my innings, but I managed to stick at it and put a decent score together with a few partnerships in the middle.

“Well, the first one, obviously a little bit disappointed, but at the same time relieved. The second one, you just got to laugh it off. Virat came up to me and I said, ‘Have you ever been dropped twice in an over?’ He laughs and said no, so just brush it off and next ball,” said Young in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.

Young also said the two escapes had made him tentative at first, so he changed his approach. “Yeah, I did actually notice that I was a little bit stuck on the crease after that, those two drops. I decided to walk at them and get my weight through the ball a bit more, and that seemed to work in my favour.”

He praised his partners through the innings, starting with Tim Seifert, who made a quickfire 58 in an 85-run opening stand. “I try to enjoy myself the whole time. Obviously, having Seifert at the other end in the opening partnership was brilliant.

“He played really well, and I think it was just a story of small partnerships throughout the innings, which got us to that 333. When Finn came to the middle, he talked about enjoying it and playing with a smile on his face, so that was great to see too.”

New Zealand were well placed at 256/4 before losing wickets steadily towards the end. Young admitted the hosts had hoped for more, but felt the total was competitive. “Yeah, I think at a certain stage in the innings we would have liked a little bit more, but we did keep losing wickets.

“So to scrap through to 333 I think is a decent score. Obviously it might be a little bit easier chasing, but I think stats say that 314 is the average first innings winning score. So hopefully that’s enough. Early wickets, feel like demons, hopefully it is.”

–IANS

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