On a track that offered a hint of seam movement upfront, Mohammed Shami spearheaded India’s pace attack admirably as New Zealand crashed to 108 all out in the second ODI in Raipur. Shami ended up with a three-for, with the rest of the attack providing him valuable support.
New Zealand, who were asked to bat first, made a disastrous start as they lost their first five wickets for just 15 runs in under 11 overs. Finn Allen, who prefers to stay back, slogged one across the line and was cleaned up by Shami – the pacer was rewarded for generating a hint of swing and nifty movement off the pitch. Mohammed Siraj then employed his trademark three-quarter seam to nip it away from the left-handed Henry Nicholls and force him to edge one behind.
Shami followed it up by dismissing Daryl Mitchell; the No.4 batter getting a leading edge back to the bowler. The procession of wickets continued as Hardik Pandya pouched a brilliant one-handed return catch to send Conway back to the hut. The New Zealand skipper, Tom Latham, didn’t survive for long either as he tamely edged Shardul Thakur to Shubman Gill at first slip.
At that juncture, with the tourists in dire-straits, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips tried to prop up the innings. The duo drove and flicked, with Bracewell also chipping down the deck to smash Shami for a couple of boundaries. However, Bracewell couldn’t repeat his heroics from the first ODI as he top-edged a pull to the wicket-keeper, with Shami picking up his third scalp.
Phillips then joined forces with Mitchell Santner to share another promising stand of 47. But Hardik cleaned up Santner with a slower one and in the very next over Phillips pulled one off Washington Sundar to deep midwicket. Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav took the last two wickets to fall to provide the finishing touches to a superb collective effort with the ball. Perhaps the only small blemish was Kuldeep dropping a simple return chance offered by Santner but it didn’t cost India much.
The track has offered help for the pace bowlers but New Zealand are well short of a fighting total.
