Duffy says Kohli has 'not many holes' after 74 in Eden Park ODI
New Zealand pacer Jacob Duffy said finding a weakness in Virat Kohli’s batting would be difficult after Kohli’s 74 helped India to a five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first ODI at Eden Park on Wednesday. Duffy, who shared the Royal Challengers Bengaluru dressing room with Kohli during their IPL 2026 title-winning campaign, said his time in the nets had given him a close look at the India batter.
Kohli struck 13 boundaries and a six in a 51-ball innings as India chased a revised target of 143 in a rain-shortened contest, reaching the target with 56 balls to spare after Rohit Sharma fell for a duck. New Zealand had been dismissed for 185 in their innings.
Duffy said New Zealand’s bowlers had limited margin for error once 180 proved insufficient at Eden Park and praised India’s pace attack for exploiting the surface. "180 at Eden Park is never going to be enough. Obviously, I think they bowled really well. They've got some big boys in that bowling team and they use the bounce of the surface really well," Duffy said, with Arshdeep Singh returning 4/70 and Gurnoor Brar 3/44.
Reflecting on Kohli’s chase, Duffy joked about the experience of bowling to him. "Yeah, it was a bit annoying, wasn't it?" he said. "Small targets like that, if you get a guy to come out with that kind of intent to knock it off, it can break the chase pretty easily. And he's a pretty good guy to do it, quite impressive, wasn't he?"
The 32-year-old New Zealander highlighted Kohli’s handling of short deliveries on the Eden Park surface. "He didn't struggle with the bounce. He got inside those hook shots, pull shots, and then he could whack you down the ground. No surprise, he's a good player. He's done it for a lot of years, and he did that to me in the nets a lot in Bangalore," Duffy said.
Duffy said he was curious whether Kohli would adopt the same approach when setting a target, but declined to reveal detailed insights from their time together at RCB. "If they're batting first or there's a bigger score on the board, it would be interesting to see if he plays like that. I'm not sure, I don't know if he will," he said. "I won't give away all their scouting tips. I did get some intel at the nets in Bangalore, but there's not many holes in his game, to be fair."
Duffy also pointed to the advantage Kohli gains on smaller grounds and acknowledged New Zealand’s late fightback in the chase. "Small grounds like that, he uses the pace really well, and then he can hit you over your head as well. So, there's not many holes in that man's game," he added. New Zealand reduced India to 136/5, but Kohli and Shubman Gill had earlier added 113 for the second wicket, and Duffy said the late wickets came too late to alter the outcome. "There's still things to gain out there. We showed our intent for the series. We're not going to back down, we're going to come hard to these guys and show what we've got," he said; he also admitted that rain-added moisture and skidding under lights made batting second advantageous and reduced the bounce New Zealand had extracted earlier.
New Zealand will now look to adjust their approach for the remaining games.
