A professional sportsperson is expected to treat victory and defeat with equanimity, to ride the highs and lows with the same equilibrium. One isn’t sure if Anshul Kamboj has read Rudyard Kipling and is familiar with his famous quote, “If you can meet success and failure and treat them both as impostors, then you are a balanced man, my son.” But he did show himself to be a balanced man at Eden Park on Wednesday after playing a stellar role in India’s five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first ODI.

Kamboj’s two previous appearances for the country had been singularly unrewarding. On Test debut in Manchester in July last year, he finished with 1-89 from 18 overs in England’s only innings; last month, in an ODI against West Indies in New Chandigarh, he was caned to the tune of 0-82 from his nine overs. If there were nerves on the eve of the Eden Park encounter, it wasn’t without reason.