5 hits and misses from the India-New Zealand ODI series

HIT- Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra celebrates the wicket of BJ Watling (Image credits: BCCI)

The veteran leg spinner got a major lifeline in his ODI career when Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out of the series. Having made his debut in 2003, he took the longest to reach 50 wickets in ODIs.

Bowling in the classic leg-spinner’s mould, Mishra has managed to extract a lot of turn from the drab pitches, troubling the Kiwi batsmen with the odd ball that turns in for the right-hander. He took a total of 15 wickets in the series, the most by anyone from both sides. He looked especially lethal in the decider, turning the ball sharply and employing his variationswith telling effect.

MISS – Martin Guptill

Martin Guptil walks back after being dismissed in the fourth ODI (Image Credits: BCCI

Another matchwinner who fell flat when it came to scoring runs, Guptill looked completely at sea in the Test series, having the additional pressure to try and cement his spot.

In the ODIs, he was expected to take the centre stage and score some quick runs in the powerplays. Instead, he seemed to be in a mental rut, unable to bring his free-flowing game to the fore at all. He managed only one-fifty plus score in the whole series, repeatedly playing down the wrong line and getting dismissed, especially to Umesh Yadav.