New Zealand hammered India to yet another crushing defeat to take a lead of 3-0 in the 5-match one day series. With this NZ has now won the series with one match still left to be played. That shows how much dominant they have been throughout the tournament.
India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss for the fourth in a row in this series but this time he decided to bat first, though it has failed to bring any sort of difference in the consequence of the match. Looking to taste victory for the first time in the series, India made two changes in their playing eleven bringing in Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny to replace Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. Rayudu played a steadying innings in the middle order when India was in a spot of bother having lost early wickets. Rohit Sharma (79) also played a solid innings as an opener to hit some sort of form. But it was again left up to Dhoni (79*) to pull India out of a critical situation as he partnered Ravindra Jadeja (62 of 52 balls) to take India to a challenging total of 278/5 at the end of 50 overs.
As the Kiwis came on to chase the target set the Men in Blue, Jesse Ryder (19) and Martin Guptill (35) provided a quickfire start to their innings. India did pick up two wickets in the opening 10 overs but also leaked too many runs that could have kept India in the game. Kane Williamson (60) and Ross Taylor (112) made good use of the platform set by the openers as they took NZ to safety before Brendon McCullum (49*)had come in and taken NZ over the finishing line. Ross Taylor played a determined innings and did not hit a single boundary on the leg-side on way to his 9th ODI hundred. New Zealand reached the target with 7 wickets remaining in hand and 11 balls to spare. Ross Taylor was awarded the man-of-the-match trophy for his brilliant century. Indian bowlers had yet another nightmare as only Shami and Varun Aaron could pick up one wicket each.
With this defeat India is now on the brink of a 4-0 series defeat with the third match having ended with the two teams on the same score. India really needs to do something special to pull off the final one-dayer and restore some pride and avoid the humiliation of series defeat in the hands of a team ranked as low as 7th in the ICC ODI rankings.
Tags: Ambati Rayudu Jesse Ryder Kane Williamson Mahendra Singh Dhoni Martin Guptill New Zealand New Zealand beat India Ravindra Jadeja Rohit Sharma Ross Taylor Shikhar Dhawan Stuart Binny Suresh Raina
