Bowling plus on road to World Cup

It is not easy to win in New Zealand in any format and it took India a decade to beat them in an ODI on Wednesday. India had won their first ODI in 2009 at McLean Park in Napier, where on Wednesday they smashed New Zealand by eight wickets.
Big-time cricket was returning to Napier after a couple of years of massive renovation in the aftermath of two games getting abandoned due to wet outfield when there was bright sun. Funnily enough, Wednesday’s game was delayed by some 30-odd minutes because of a setting sun!

Napier has always been the add-on venue to Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton and these unexpected issues are creating problems as newer venues are coming up. India will be playing the second and third matches in one of them, the picturesque Bay Oval, Mount Manganui.
In 2009, India had won the Test as well as ODI series in New Zealand and those were the days of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Some of them are experts on TV these days and only two from that squad are still around. Both are wicketkeepers. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik.

From the 2013-14 series in the antipodes, eight are in the present squad and the man who took four wickets at Napier th­en, pacer Mohammed Shami, was Man of the Match this ti­me. It was his three wickets in six overs in two spells that br­o­­ke the back of the Kiwis, making it easier for spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal to polish off the rest.

Even the so-called part-time bowler, Kedar Jadhav, produced a wicket and the three spinners got seven wickets in 23 middle overs conceding 99 runs, the last four for 11 runs.
A target of 157 proved woefully inadequate for a side which boasts of three players — skipper Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls — in the ICC Test XI of the year and Ross Taylor in the ODI XI.
For Virat Kohli, losing the toss was a blessing in disguise as India bowled out the Black Caps in 38 overs and knocked off the runs for the loss of two wickets. Shikhar Dhawan got into his known form scoring a fifty. A comprehensive victory in all respects.

If there is anything on the debit side, it was two dropped catches on a day when they also took some spectacular catches. More so after the home team scored upwards of 350 runs twice and once 300-plus against Sri Lanka earlier in the month.

The story, however, is all ab­o­ut the Indian bowlers who are turning out to be the best atta­ck in international cricket today. If the pacers are making wa­ves, it has to be a cause of co­ncern for international tea­ms. It was often said the Indians get carried away by the co­n­­­ditions in Australia, New Ze­­­a­land, England and South Afr­ica and lose their length, line and rhythm. The last one year has changed all that and the fast bowlers are a transfo­rmed lot generating 140km plus consistently. If Ishant Sh­arma, Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are the men with the red ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar comes in for Ishant to make the attack potent in ODIs.
The selectors and the team management must get a pat for resurrecting Shami and slotting him as a key bowler in the ODIs. The length he is bowling can make him useful in Twenty20s too. He has also shown greater inclination in running hard and bowling intelligently on his return from an injury lay-off after a year and half.

The Kiwis must be disappo­­inted with the start they had as they are seen as one of the fa­v­o­urties to win the World Cup. Bu­t then, there are still fo­u­r ma­­tches to be played.
(The writer is a veteran commentator and views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)