The match was dominated by the Indians and the New Zealand team was no where near the Indians. Playing after a well deserved rest the Indian team played as a cohesive unit and performed brilliantly in every department be it bowling or batting. The first match of the Indian team of the Compaq Cup three nation tournament will be remembered for two Indians, who were coming to the national squad after a long time-Rahul Dravid and Ashish Nehra.

Rahul Dravid often called as the wall of the Indian team for his superb solid batting was making his comeback after some two years, while left arm seamer Ashish Nehra too was making his come back after a long time. He was out of the Indian team owing to injury, on the other hand, former Indian team skipper Rahul Dravid was ignored for the national service owing to his poor form during the 2007 World Cup held in South Africa, where India was ousted in the first round embarrassingly.

Batting first, New Zealand scored a paltry score of 155 and could not play their full quota of 50 overs, the entire team was bowled out in 46.3 overs. It was comeback man, Ashish Nehra, who stole the show, in his 8.3 overs, he took three crucial wickets by giving only 24 runs. In reply, India scored the required runs by losing only four wickets. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar was the highest scorer with 46 runs. Rahul Dravid failed in his comeback match and could only score 14 runs. Ashish Nehra was declared man of the match for his superb bowling.

By winning their first match of the tri-series, Indian team made history. India is now the number one one-day international team in the world and only the third team to do so since the beginning of the ODI ranking.