Raipur: The Indian bowlers were accurate in their bowling, fetched good swing, turn, bounce, and took sharp return catches in an impressive show to bundle out New Zealand for just 108 in the second ODI at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
On a pitch with some amount of grass cover, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami found seam movement to run through the New Zealand top and middle-order, reducing them to 15/5 at one stage.
Though Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner played some defiant knocks, they were unable to bail their side out of trouble and the pressure was maintained by Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav.
Rohit Sharma’s decision to bowl first brought was rewarded immediately as Shami got one to nip back in and go past Finn Allen’s flick to crash into the stumps on the fifth ball of the innings. Shami and Siraj were on the money for the next five overs, making life difficult for the New Zealand batters.
The good length delivery caused trouble to Henry Nicholls and eventually, he nicked to first slip off Siraj in the sixth over. In the next over, Daryl Mitchell was undone by good length, chipping the ball back to Shami, who took a one-handed stunning return catch.
Devon Conway got New Zealand’s first boundary with a crisp drive in the gap between cover and point. But in a bid to drive off Pandya, Conway could only see the bowler take a one-handed low catch by taking out his left hand on the follow-through.
Captain Tom Latham pushed at a seaming away delivery from Thakur without footwork in the 11th over, and gave a straightforward catch to the first slip, leaving New Zealand at 15/5. Phillips and Bracewell struck six delightful boundaries, especially with the latter cutting, punching and whipping off Shami for boundaries.
But Shami had the last laugh, bouncing out Bracewell and feather edge grabbed by the keeper in the 19th over. Santner had luck on his side when Rohit dropped his catch at short mid-wicket in the 20th over and four overs later, Kuldeep shelled a catch of him off his own bowling.
With the ball getting older, Phillips was quick to drive and pull off Thakur while Santner pulled and lofted off Kuldeep with ease. The 47-run partnership was ended by Pandya on the first ball of the 31st over, with his slower delivery taking the inside edge of Santner’s bat and crashing into the stumps.
In the next over, Phillips departed by pulling straight to deep mid-wicket off Washington. He and Kuldeep took out Lockie Ferguson and Blair Tickner in successive overs to wrap New Zealand’s innings in 34.2 overs.
Brief scores: New Zealand 108 all out in 34.3 overs (Glenn Phillips 36, Mitchell Santner 27; Mohammed Shami 3-18, Washington Sundar 2-7) against India
(IANS)
