India vs New Zealand | India flatten Kiwis in decider to win series

10/29/2016

Amit Mishra ran through the Kiwi lineup with a fifer to help India reduce them to a score of 79 in just about 23 overs and win the series 3-2 today. Earlier, Rohit Sharma’s knock of 70 followed by Virat Kohli’s 65 had helped India set a tough target of 269 runs on a slow wicket at Vizag.

Brief scores : India 269/6 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 70(65); Kohli 65(76); Boult 2/52; Sodhi 2/66) defeated New Zealand 79 all out in 23.1 overs (Kane Williamson 27, Tom Latham 19, Ross Taylor 1; Amit Mishra 5/18)

Rohit Sharma's early blaze

With scores of just 14,15, 13, and 11 in his last four matches, Rohit Sharma was under a bit of pressure to perform. The openers have failed to provide good starts to India in this series so far, and just when it seemed like the duo were building a good partnership with 40 onboard, Ajinkya Rahane chipped one straight to Tom Latham at short midwicket.

However, Rohit Sharma came into his own after Rahane's dismissal, and began to play his shots freely. The pitch at Visakhapatnam was on the slower side, but Sharma began to use his feet get to the pitch of the ball or to move back deep into his crease to create his own length. He went after Ish Sodhi in the 14th over and pulled one to the short leg boundary. In Sodhi's next over, Rohit Sharma cleared his front leg and drilled one flighted delivery over long-off for a six.

He brought up his half-century in the 18th over with a boundary through the point. The right-hander was dropped by Ross Taylor as he failed to hold onto a mistimed slog by Rohit at short midwicket. However, he failed to make the most of that new lease of life as Boult dismissed him with a well-directed bouncer in the next over. His 79-run partnership with Kohli had given India the perfect platform to post a big total.

Santner ties down India

After Rohit Sharma's dismissal, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni came together and formed a 71-run partnership for the 3rd wicket. However, the duo were unable to score at their usual brisk pace with the surface assisting the spinners a lot. Sodhi, in particular, extracted a lot of turn from the surface, while Santner bowled a brightly economical spell. The left arm spinner trapped Dhoni in front of the wicket with a slow delivery which did not turn as much as the Indian skipper had expected.

From 190/2 India went to 220/5 in a matter of six overs as Sodhi dismissed Manish Pandey for a duck and then Kohli is caught at long-off. Axar Patel and Kedar Jadhav scored some vital runs for the team towards the end of the innings and took the score well past the 250-run mark. However, it was Santner's spell of 1/36 in his 10 overs, which turned out to be the highlight of the second half of the first innings in the match.

Kiwis crumble

270 was never going to be an easy target for the Black Caps on a slow and low Vizag wicket. Umesh Yadav castled Martin Guptill with a peach of a delivery in the fourth ball of the innings. That brought skipper Williamson early to face the new ball. Umesh and Jasprit Bumrah kept the Kiwis at bay although they mustered 46 runs from the mandatory power play.

With the wicket slow, Dhoni brought tweaker Axar Patel into business in the eighth over of the game. Patel, who had received a lot of criticism for his flatter trajectory, managed to give a little flight to the ball. In that over, Williamson misjudged a single and Kohli missed a direct-hit by a whisker. After five more deliveries, Williamson was again left stranded, but survived the scare once again.

But, Amit Mishra came on to bowl and immediately initiated the collapse of the New Zealand innings. With a brilliant leg-spinner, he had Ross Taylor gone for a score of 19. After two deliveries, Mishra bowled BJ Watling for a duck with a superb googly to send the Kiwis hurtling to 66/5.

Debutant Haryana offie Jayant Yadav then took his first ODI wicket catching Corey Anderson plumb in front for a duck. Amit Mishra came back for his next over and took another two wickets.

The leggie, who has been in and out of the team, appeared to have sent a message of his worth to the selection panel.

Mishra’s next over saw him complete his fifer with Ish Sodhi’s wicket before Axar Patel completed the proceedings with Santner’s wicket.

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