Cricket

India got a fine start from Gambhir, but Vijay’s work at the other end was patchy as he struggled to stay in the crease. New Zealand opened their attack with Nathan McCullum, for better grip of the ball. Vijay never looked comfortable on this slow track where as his partner gave his best. Gambhir’s innings was exceptional, except a few inside edges. He found gaps with ease and showed impeccable timing.

Vijay’s misery ended when he missed his attempt to a slog-sweep in the bowling of Vettori. Kohli joined Gambhir, adding more woes to New Zealand’s lackluster attack. Kohli continued his good form as he supported his skipper well. Things seemed to be going in New Zealand’s way with a few quiet overs in the middle. But all of a sudden, it started raining boundaries at Jaipur. Kohli failed in converting hi innings into a big one as Taylor took a sharp catch at midwicket. New Zealand failed to put pressure on the hosts as Gambhir continued his rampage to get tenth ODI century.

Yuvraj joined the fun with a six of Williamson. These two made sure that there will be no further hiccups in the chase. And McKay’s 39^th over decided the fortune of the game with four boundaries coming from that over.

Apart from skipper Daniel Vettori, the Kiwi bowlers were unable to control Indian batsmen. There was not as much dew as expected and the conditions didn’t necessarily get tougher for the bowlers. But there was a huge bridge between the performances of the Indian and Kiwi bowlers.

Indian bowlers found their rhythm early in the day and they were accurate enough to keep New Zealand batsman in control. Sreesanth got some swing which troubled the batsman and he was paid back with the wicket of How. Nehra and Munaf stood to their basics and they hardly gave batsman any room. Though Guptill and Williamson looked solid with their 50-run partnership, there was no chance of taking charge on bowlers.

Munaf Patel got the breakthrough with a delivery that nipped back sharply and rattled the stumps to send young Williamson back to pavilion. With pressure building on the batsmen, Ross Taylor skied one from Munaf, but it ended up as a dropped chance. The hosts were lucky as Taylor could not capitalize on that dropped chance as he holed out to Kohli at deep midwicket.

Guptill, on the other end looked comfortable. He tried to settle things along with Styris. With boundaries hardly coming, the Kiwi’s opted for batting powerplay. They were not able to make the most of it as Guptill nicked a ball to the wicket-keeper. Styris took the job of taking New Zealand to a comfortable score, with Vettori supporting him from the other end.

Styris was particularly harsh on the spinners, as he scored all his five fours and one six. He cornered Yuvraj Singh, smashing four boundaries against him. With a partnership at a rate more than run-a-ball, New Zealand would have got promising total. But Sreesanth turned things around by dismissing both veterans in two back to back deliveries. The lower order added a few runs to make a modest total of 258.

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