The second ODI came around fast it was a short break between the matches. New Zealand had the edge, as they were 1-0 up in the series. They were batting first in this match, the openers once again didn’t perform it is not like Guptill not to score runs, so he will be wondering what is going wrong and be evaluating how to set things right. As Guptill is known as one of the most destructive batsman of the game, once he gets going it is hard to stop him.
It was the lower order batsman who chipped in with the runs with 20’s, 30’s and 40’s in order to save New Zealand and make sure they do get a decent score. The Indian bowlers were fantastic in this game, and made sure New Zealand were not able to score freely. The Indian bowlers made it difficult for New Zealand to score the runs, and put them under pressure. Especially Kumar who was quietly effective, he left his mark on this game and really stepped up for India. It was a great seeing him bowl so well, he definitely gave a bowling masterclass in this game.
New Zealand finished on 230 runs and lost 9 wickets in the process. This was a low scoring ODI so this was India’s game to win now.
India were into bat now and Sharma went early but Dhawan stuck around, and had a good game today, as he was timing the ball well in this ODI. The top order performed as well in this ODI considering they didn’t do well in the 1st one. They definitely switched things around and turned the match in their favour.
Another batsman who did well for India in this game was Karthik it was really good to see him amongst the runs. It was the 68 runs from Dhawan and 64 runs from Karthik that really propelled India to victory in this game. As both batsman performed, alongside getting support from the other Indian batsman who chipped in with some quick fire runs.
India won the match by 6 wickets with 24 balls remaining.
Post match commentary (espncricinfo.com)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the Man of the Match. “That’s my nature, I’m calm, and however you practice you replicate that. I never try to do anything different. It’s the way I bowl, with the new ball, I swing it. It wasn’t happening today, so I just tried to bowl in good areas, got two wickets and that gave me confidence. Things get easier for you when you’re confident. There’s no easy route to success, but with confidence, you can do those good things better. I’m not muscular, but thanks to the trainer, introducing player-specific training, I feel much confident and stronger when it comes to fitness”
“Pretty good game for us today. Exactly what we spoke at toss time. Pitch would be slow in the evening, better to bat at night,” Virat Kohli says. “Great to see Bummrah and Bhuvi, they are our top two bowlers, they know they will start more often than not, so they can create plans. And today with the wicket being slow, it was great to see them getting batsmen out in conventional ways, not ugly wickets. Shikhar has been playing very well, one odd game he’s faltered, but he’s hitting the ball really well and he’s getting good runs at the top. Dinesh as well, getting crucial runs for himself and for the team. We look forward to any challenge on us. We spoke about needing to bounce back, and we’ve done that.”
9.10 pm “One of those surfaces where if you get a good score on the board and squeeze, the bowlers would have made life difficult,” Kane Williamson says. “We weren’t good enough at the top, India’s opening bowlers were very very well, hit the mark, the length on that surface. There’s a lesson there for us. And we know we have to play a lot better to beat these guys. The surface wasn’t easy to play fluently and Colin came out and went at run-a-ball. We came here with high hopes, we put a much better performance in Mumbai and we need to be better again in Kanpur”