New Zealand’s hopes of winning its first-ever one-day series in India went up in smoke as a dream spell by leg-spinner Amit Mishra (6-2-18-5) triggered early Diwali celebrations at the ACA-VDCA Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium here on Saturday night.
Chasing 270, the Kiwis were bundled out for 79 in 23.1 overs, leaving the M.S. Dhoni-led team winner by 190 runs. There were five ‘ducks’ in the Kiwis’ scorecard!
It started with pacer Umesh Yadav cleaning up opener Martin Guptill with a beauty in the opening over that squared the right-hander up.
Soon, southpaw Tom Latham was surprised by the bounce, as he went for a flick off Jaspreet Bumrah, only to give a simple catch to mid-on.
It was a situation which merited two of the best New Zealand batsmen — captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor — to come good. But, they were done in by the guiles of the spin duo of left-armer Axar Patel and Mishra.
First, Axar induced the Kiwi captain to hit to the deep for Kedar Jadhav to take a fine running catch to his left at long-off.
Mishra then struck a double blow in the 16th over — forcing a struggling Taylor to snick to Dhoni and leaving B-J. Watling flummoxed by a googly. The Kiwis were in dire straits at 66 for five in 16 overs.
After that, it was only a question of time before India wrapped up the contest and the series in style with even debutant Jayant Yadav picking up a wicket with his gentle off-breaks. Mishra was not only named Man-of-the-match but was also voted the Player-of-the series for his 15 wickets.
Earlier, batting after winning the toss, India was off to a slow start, scoring 45 for one in 10 overs — losing Ajinkya Rahane in the 10th over.
Rohit comes good
However, the classy Rohit Sharma rediscovered his form, though slow to start with (five off 21 balls), in compiling a stroke-filled 70 laced with his trademark strokes on either side of the wicket, both against pace and spin.
But, Rohit suffered cramps on 46 which hampered his movements. He perished mistiming a pull off left-arm pacer Trent Boult, after putting on 79 runs off 78 balls with Virat Kohli.
The advent of the Indian captain was what the situation demanded and the crowd loved it. Kohli, who was content till then in rotating the strike, became more aggressive.
A 71-run stand off 93 balls for the third wicket was broken just as it was threatening to assume dangerous proportions when Dhoni was trapped leg -efore, trying to sweep left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner.
Manish Pandey failed to grab the opportunity to come up with a big score, heaving one against the spin from Sodhi straight to the deep fielder to leave India on 195 for four in 38.4 overs.
Responsible Kohli
The focus was again back on Kohli, who earlier saw Sodhi fail to latch on to a difficult return catch when on eight. He responded in style with a responsible half-century sans any flamboyance. Towards the end, Kedar Jadhav came up with a useful knock to ensure a challenging score.
The Kiwi bowling on a slow pitch was disciplined, with Santner being the pick in the crucial middle-overs even as Sodhi was more expensive in picking two wickets.
