Hamilton: After a two-hour delay due to rain and wet outfield, India won the toss and elected to bowl against New Zealand in the third ODI here at Seddon Park. The visitors, leading 2-0, are looking to take an unassailable lead and clinch the five-game series early on.
The previous two ODIs were affected by rain, with both teams facing moments of frustration throughout the series so far. The Men in Blue won the opening ODI by five wickets in Auckland while chasing a revised DLS target of 143 in 22.2 overs.
In the second ODI in Wellington, India were declared winners under the DLS method after rain brought an end to proceedings with the visitors at 113/7 while chasing 135, four runs ahead on the DLS par score.
New Zealand have had a lot of injury issues and concussion problems, with the side naming several replacements over the course of the last one week. This game is a must-win contest for them to stay alive in the series.
Shubman Gill will be captaining the side for the last time this series, with key players like him and KL Rahul, among others, not a part of the squad for the remaining two ODIs in order to prepare for the two-match Test series that follows next.
A win on Tuesday will mark the first time Gill claims a series win away from home as India’s captain. The home team, meanwhile, will look to bounce back in the series after sustaining multiple setbacks throughout the T20I and ODI series’.
Winning the toss by calling Tails again, Gill said, “Hope the weather clears and that we repeat our performance. Going on and off is quite frustrating, hope we can play continuously.”
Kiwi skipper Mitchell Santner, meanwhile, said, “We trained yesterday. Hope to do what we did the other day better. ODIs you think 300 is a good score but 180 would’ve been in the last game. Gotta assess conditions today. One change: Fisher is in for Tickner. Four seamers, they’ll do the majority of the bowling”
Playing XIs:
India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Matt Fisher
(IANS)
