Kyle Jamieson celebrates the wicket of Prithvi Shaw during the 2nd ODI between India and New Zealand in Auckland. (AP Photo)
New Zealand outplayed India in almost all departments to take a 2-0 unassailable lead and clinch the three-match ODI series thanks to a comfortable win in the second encounter in Auckland on Saturday. It was a brilliant performance by the hosts as they fought back well to win the match by 22 runs and take sweet revenge after a nightmarish whitewash in the T20I series.
Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor smashed half-centuries to power New Zealand to a competitive 273/8. In reply, the visitors never got going and were guilty of losing wickets at regular intervals. None of the batsmen, except Shreyas Iyer (52 off 57 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (55), we’re able to convert their starts into meaningful contributions.
The victory also completed a hat-trick of ODI wins for the Black Caps starting from their World Cup semi-final win in Manchester last year.
New Zealand’s 6-foot 8-inch debutant Kyle Jamieson (2/42 and 25 off 24 balls) got the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his all-round show.
Tough day at the office but great character shown by #TeamIndia. #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/jgyz9YyhYt
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 8, 2020
Toss: India won the toss and opt to bowl. India made two changes, bringing in Navdeep Saini and Yuzvendra Chahal in place of Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav. New Zealand, on the other hand, handed ODI debut to Kyle Jamieson, the country’s tallest bowler standing at six feet, eight inches. He replaced spinner Ish Sodhi, while Mark Chapman came in for Mitchell Santner in the playing XI.
1st innings: Put in to bat, Guptill scored a run-a-ball 79 and along with his opening partner Herny Nicholls (41) shared a 93-run partnership but the hosts suffered a collapse, losing five wickets for 26 runs to slip to 197 for 8 at one stage. Yuzvendra Chahal (3/58) claimed three wickets, Shardul Thakur (2/60) took two wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja (1/35) snapped one and effected a run-out.
But Taylor, who had scored a century in the first ODI, played an unbeaten knock of 73 off 74 balls and added 76 runs with debutant Kyle Jamieson (25 not out) to take New Zealand across the 250-mark.
2nd innings: In reply, the opening pair of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal were off to a breezy start as Shaw hit three boundaries in the first over itself. But Agarwal (3) was dismissed in the third over against the run of play. Shaw departed next when he was castled by Jamieson for 24 (19 balls). Indian captain Virat Kohli also fell cheaply (15) when he was also clean bowled for 15 (25 balls).
Shreyas Iyer waged a lone battle as wickets kept tumbling around him. KL Rahul and Kedar Jadhav both falling for single-digit scores even before the scoreboard touched the 100-run mark. It seemed like the pressure finally got to Iyer as he played a rash shot to Hamish Bennett leaving India at 129/6. Ravindra Jadeja, along with tailenders Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini, kept the Indian scoreboard moving forward.
In fact, the highest partnership of the innings was between Jadeja and Saini- which tells the story. Jadeja (55) and Saini (45) did give the men in blue some hope of a miraculous win. However, it was too much to ask from the lower-order as India finally succumbed to a defeat.
Turning Point: The wicket of Shreyas Iyer
Brief Score: New Zealand:- 273/8 in 50 overs (Martin Gu3ptill 79, Ross Taylor 73; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/58).