The Indian team was unaffected by the uncertain atmosphere (after a media sting operation revealed that the official curator allegedly revealed pitch-related information to alleged bookies) and the pressure of facing their first must-win match in recent times, and brought their A-game to the park to defeat New Zealand by 6 wickets at the MCA Stadium in Pune.
Having lost the first ODI in Mumbai, Team India had to win this contest to stay alive in the 3-match series; they did that in style after restricting the Kiwis to 230-9 and then chased down the runs in 46 overs to level the series.
This was India’s 100th ODI against New Zealand, and they celebrated it by notching up their 50th win against them.
It was a clinical performance from the Indian bowlers, who in the first ODI struggled to break the match-winning partnership between Tom Latham and Ross Taylor. On Wednesday, the bowlers were on the money from ball one.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the tone for the innings by dismissing Martin Guptill in the third over, before Jasprit Bumrah joined in to dismiss the Kiwis skipper Kane Williamson in the sixth over.
Bhuvneshwar struck for a second time in the following over when he dismissed the other opener Colin Munro. New Zealand, who had opted to bat, had slipped to 27-3 – their poorest start in ODIs against India on Indian soil.
The quick bowlers were not done after those early strikes. In the 16th over, Hardik Pandya joined in when he picked up the big wicket of Ross Taylor, while Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah added the scalps of Henry Nicholls and Mitchell Santner respectively to their tally.
In all, the quick bowlers picked up a total of 6 wickets – a rare feat for the Indian pace bowling line-up while playing at home. Bhuvneshwar finished with excellent figures of 3-45, while Bumrah (who bowled 2 maiden overs in his spell) finished with figures of 2-38.
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After the early strikes, the Indian spinners ensured the Kiwi middle order did not get away. Kedar Jadhav – who was introduced into the attack in the eleventh over, Axar Patel (who replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the playing eleven) and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled tidy lines and lengths and did not give the Blackcaps too many scoring opportunities.
In the 28 overs the trio bowled, they only conceded a total of 8 boundaries and bowled a total of 80 dot deliveries. The spinners’ lack of sting and their ability to plug the runs was one of the reasons India ended on the wrong side in the first ODI. They rectified that on Wednesday and did an excellent job. They restricted the runs, and picked up wickets too.
Given that the surface was a pretty good one for batting, the run-chase was a formality – if India didn’t lose wickets in a heap at any point in the chase. Though Rohit Sharma was dismissed cheaply, partnerships of 57, 66, 59 and 28* ensured India got over the line quite comfortably.
Shikhar Dhawan scored a patient 68 at the top, while Dinesh Karthik scored his second half-century in his last three ODI innings.
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