The three-match ODI series is levelled 1-1.
After winning the first ODI of the three-match series, India lost to New Zealand in Rajkot. KL Rahul’s century in the first innings propelled the home side to post 284/7. But a poor show on the field meant Shubman Gill & Co. couldn’t defend the total. The visitors won with seven wickets in hand and 15 balls to spare.
When you have a centurion in your team, it makes it more difficult to end on the losing side. Experts and fans can argue that India were 15-20 runs short, but the captain Shubman Gill clarified what actually led to the loss.
With five fielders in, if you don’t keep taking wickets in the middle overs, it becomes very difficult even if we would have added 15-20 more runs. It’s very difficult to stop a batsman. On these kind of wickets, you know, as soon as you have a partnership, the set batsman has to make it big because it’s not easy for the batsman coming in to score freely. In the first 10-15 overs, the ball was doing a little bit. We could have been more brave with the bowling. Even in the last match, we let down a couple of chances.
Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, and Kuldeep Yadav took one wicket each. But none of the bowlers could capitalise on taking wickets.
Barring Mohammed Siraj, all bowlers gave away runs with more than five RPO. To add to that, sloppy fielding also led to taking advantage of a promising situation.
While it may look like India gave up too soon, it was indeed tricky to get the set batsman out. Daryl Mitchell remained unbeaten on 131. His partnership of 162 with Will Young (87) slipped the game away from India’s hands.
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The all-rounder could manage only 27 runs off 44, a relatively slow knock compared to what the situation demanded, and the level of experience. In the previous match, he was out for four runs.
While Ravindra Jadeja’s batting spot might need consideration, his form is a bigger concern for India. Now that the series is on the line, Jadeja can be pushed down a spot or two.
In the last year or so, Jadeja has mainly batted at No.8, remaining unbeaten in four out of five occasions.
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