The beauty of cricket lies in the challenge of measuring up to different conditions. The thrill of a contest in New Zealand is the batters showing the skill and game sense to get the runs on a spicy surface.
Order has been restored in the second leg of the white-ball series after a batting feast in the T20I series. Saturday in Wellington was ideal for the pace tribe with rain in the air providing enough nip off the pitch at the Hnry Stadium in the second ODI.
On the same ground, in the T20I game 10 days ago, India had chased down a target of 199 for the loss of four wickets in just 13.2 overs. This surface had more bounce and carry, demanding the traditional approach in ODIs.
Owing to wet weather, the start of the game was delayed by one hour, but once the action started, every aspect of the batters' game was tested.
After their captain Shubman Gill did them the favour of calling correctly and allowing them the first chance of bowling in the rain-curtailed 47-overs-a-side game, the Indian bowlers made the most of the helpful conditions for the second straight game. Led by an inspired show from pacer Gurnoor Brar, they did the sensible thing by keeping the ball in the right areas to reap the rewards to bundle out New Zealand for just 134.
The Indian batters didn’t have it any easier. New Zealand pacers prized out India’s top-order cheaply too, getting Shubman Gill for a first-ball duck, Virat Kohli for seven and Rohit Sharma for 23 to reduce India to 54/4 in 15 overs.
{{/usCountry}}The Indian batters didn’t have it any easier. New Zealand pacers prized out India’s top-order cheaply too, getting Shubman Gill for a first-ball duck, Virat Kohli for seven and Rohit Sharma for 23 to reduce India to 54/4 in 15 overs.
{{/usCountry}}With 81 needed in 32 overs, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer (30-46b) took the total to 86 in 20 overs before Iyer fell to a well-directed short ball from Kyle Jamieson. In the low-scoring game, the run rate didn’t matter. As India also kept losing wickets, it was down to 22 runs with three wickets in hand when rain came down hard to stop play.
Rahul (26*) had helped India reach 113/7 in 26 overs. According to the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, India won by four runs to take a 2-0 lead in the five match ODI series. The DLS par score was 109 when the game was abandoned.
As to what the batters were up against, New Zealand top scorer Daryl Mitchell (55 runs) said: “Pretty challenging out there. It was like batting on a trampoline — didn't know what height it would come towards us. It was hard to drop the wrists on shots and run. We wanted to get partnerships going, but every time we got one, we lost a wicket.”
In bowling, the tall Brar was the pick of the Indian bowlers, keeping the pressure on the home team batters in the middle overs after early inroads made with the new ball by Aquib Nabi.
Nabi set the tone for the game, picking up his first international wickets with two early strikes. Anshul Kamboj was superb at first-change to finish with 2/25, while lone spinner Axar Patel complemented the pacers with a spell of 9-1-28-2.
Arshdeep Singh was unlucky not to have anything to show for in the wickets column. The left-arm pacer had exerted early pressure with a fine opening four-over spell of 4-0-4-0 before finishing with figures of 7-1-16-0.
Wicketless in his first two ODI games, Nabi repaid the faith shown by the team management. By getting a wicket in his first over, inducing a false shot from the dangerous Tim Seifert, his nerves were calmed. Nabi produced a peach to get the other opener Will Young.
Kamboj struck in his first over to reduce New Zealand to 23/3 in 8.4 overs with the scalp of No.3 Henry Nicholls.
From there, it was about maintaining pressure. Brar ensured India never lost grip of the match after he came on in the 12th over. He produced a double-wicket maiden in the 20th over to reduce the hosts to 53/5. Despite short-square boundaries, Brar’s use of the short-ball tactics as a surprise weapon foxed the home side batters, Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips.
Captain Mitchell Santner did well to take the fight to the pacers during a partnership with Mitchell, adding 59 runs for the sixth wicket. Mitchell, who was dropped by Gill off Kamboj at the score of 21, went on to score a fifty to be New Zealand’s top scorer with 55 (5x4, 2x6), but he was at sea against the left-arm spin of Axar and ended up holing to the long-on fielder.
Brar made his final spell count, picking up two more to finish with figures of 4/30, which are the third-best for India in men's ODIs in New Zealand.