Cricket

Gautam Gambhir broke free and returned to form with a sparkling knock of 138* and along with Delhi teammate Virat Kohli guided India to an 8 wicket victory over the Kiwis in the second ODI at Jaipur.

After winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, Sreesanth struck in his second over as How edged a ball that slightly moved away. However 20 year old Williamson, along with Martin Guptill put on a 50 run partnership before Munaf nipped one back to dismiss Williamson. The run rate was taking a beating and Taylor tried to whack Yusuf Pathan’s first ball out of the ground. It was not to be as Virat Kohli picked up a simple catch at deep midwicket which brought in the experienced campaigner Scott Styris into the middle.

Styris and Guptill nudged, poked and pushed as they picked up singles and twos with ease as the Kiwis reached 101/3 at the halfway mark. After making 70 off 102 balls, Guptill finally fell to Ashwin. The ball pitched on off stump and deviated the other way and managed to find the edge of Guptill’s bat. Vettori put on some quick runs in the company of Styris.

The Kiwis were beginning to break loose as Sreesanth was brought back into the attack in the 46^th over and as he had done in the first match, he picked up two wickets of two consecutive balls. He first got Styris, who top edged a heave to midwicket and Saha, with the gloves, had the simplest of catches. Then he cleaned up Vettori who tried to go fine. Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills chipped in with some quick runs as New Zealand reached 259, a decent competitive total.

The Kiwis decided to open the bowling with Nathan McCullum so as to reduce the dew factor later. He did manage to keep Vijay quiet but the skipper Gambhir was in a world of his own, constantly stepping out and driving over covers. By the 10^th over, he had stuck 7 boundaries as India reached 52/0.

It took 8 more overs for the Kiwis to finally get a breakthrough. Vijay, who looked tentative all throughout his innings, attempted a slog sweep and completely missed the line of the ball. This brought the in-form batsman Virat Kohli into the middle. The Delhi lad along with his skipper played with cool heads and by the 30^th over, India reached 161/1, the match completely in their grasp.

Kohli brought up his half century in the 34^th over and a couple of overs later Gambhir flicked one over midwicket to bring up his 8^th ODI century. Although Kohli fell for 64, there was no stopping Gambhir, who just went berserk after his century. India cruised to the target with 7 overs to spare and 8 wickets in hand.

The misery continued for the Kiwis as they have now not registered a win in their last 7 ODI’s. India took a 2-0 lead in the series and Gautam Gambhir’s return to form was the icing on the cake they needed.

Tags: Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, India, Indian Sports, Jaipur, New Zealand, ODI Match, ODI Series, Sports, Sports India, Virat Kohli