India vs New Zealand ODI series: 5 biggest plays of the series

After beating New Zealand 3-0 in the three-match Test series, MS Dhoni’s men clinched the ODI series 3-2 with a 190-run win over the Kiwis in the final ODI at Vizag last night. It was a complete team performance from the Indians as each and every member of the team contributed to the victory.

The series saw a lot of brilliant performances from both the teams and there were moments that stood out among the rest. Kane Williamson’s century at New Delhi, the new-ball tussle between Umesh Yadav and Martin Guptill, Indian cricket team’s Nayi Soch campaign, Tom Latham carrying the bat etc. are some of the interesting plays from the series.

Let us take a look at the top-5 plays from the five-match ODI series.

#1 Hardik Pandya’s dream debut

2016 has been a memorable year for all-rounder Hardik Pandya as he was called up to the Indian T20I side in January and was an integral part of the team till the end of the World T20. His poor performances in the tournament made the selectors to drop him for the tour of Zimbabwe and West Indies.

It was when Pandya worked hard on his fitness, gained some muscles and made a bid for a comeback to the national team. He was the star of the quadrangular A series in Australia and his heroics earned him a call to the Indian ODI team for the 5-match series against New Zealand.

He made his debut in the first ODI at Dharamsala and was troubling Martin Guptill right from the word go. Guptill was lucky enough to get a couple of boundaries through the slip cordon in Pandya’s first over before he square-cut him to the point boundary to make it 3 in Pandya’s first five balls in ODI cricket. Pandya made a brilliant comeback in the last ball when he forced Guptill to edge the ball, and it went straight into the hands of Rohit Sharma at second slip.

He also accounted for the wickets of Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi and finished with figures of 3-31 in 7 overs, which earned him the Man of the Match award on his ODI debut.

#2 Kedar Jadhav, the bowler

Kedar Jadhav was a surprise package with the ball

India had several positives from the series, and nothing is bigger than the birth of Kedar Jadhav as a bowler. Jadhav was lucky to play in all the five matches in this series with Suresh Raina being ruled out of the series due to a viral fever.

Raina’s absence meant that MS Dhoni had to look out for either Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma to roll their arms over whenever he needed few overs. But, to everyone’s surprise, Dhoni threw the ball to Jadhav, who has taken just one wicket each in first-class and List A cricket.

But, Jadhav shocked the world when he took two wickets (Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner) in two balls in the first ODI before dismissing Tom Latham in the second ODI. The off-spinner continued his good run with the ball in the third ODI when he got the big fish Kane Williamson before dismissing a well-set Tom Latham and Corey Anderson.

He ended the series with more wickets than Axar Patel and Mitchell Santner- 6 wickets for 73 runs from 18 overs.

#3 Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 154

Virat Kohli was on imperious form once again

Throughout the series, the Indian openers failed to get the innings off to a flier as either Rohit or Rahane fell early in all the matches and this put on a lot of burden on Virat Kohli to deliver. With a lot of pressure on him, the Indian Test skipper managed to stamp his authority over the Kiwi bowlers as he scored over at least 45 in four of the five matches in the series.

The third ODI at Mohali gave the fans a Virat Kohli special as the Indian ODI vice-captain was at his best throughout the innings. After surviving a dropped chance when he was at 6, Kohli went on to make full use of it and taught Ross Taylor a lesson for putting a sitter at slip.

Chasing 286 to win, Kohli and MS Dhoni put on a 151-run partnership for the third wicket and set the tone for India’s victory. After reaching his century off just 104 balls, Kohli went into an entirely different zone as he punished the Kiwi bowlers by smashing them all over the park. India needed 72 runs when Kohli reached his 26^th ODI ton, and out of those 72, Kohli went to score 54 and won the match for India with ten balls to spare.

He was severe on Trent Boult as he plundered 22 runs off one Boult over and reached his second 150+ score in ODIs. In the end, he remained unbeaten on 154 off just 134 balls with the help of 16 fours and one six. This knock reminded the fans of the unbeaten 82 off 51 balls against Australia at the same venue during the 2016 World T20.

#4 New Zealand’s batting collapse in the fifth ODI

Amit Mishra bamboozled New Zealand with his googlies

With the series leveled 2-2, New Zealand required 270 in the fifth ODI at Vizag to win the series. The visitors were off to a disastrous start as they lost the wicket of Martin Guptill in the first over of the innings and lost Tom Latham against the run of play inside the first six overs.

New Zealand were 63-2 after 14.3 overs when the Indian spinners triggered a collapse. Axar Patel struck to dismiss Kane Williamson caught by Kedar Jadhav at long-off and in the next over, Mishra dismissed Ross Taylor caught behind. Two balls later, Mishra bowled a superb googly to beat BJ Watling’s defense and hit the stumps.

Corey Anderson and Jimmy Neesham were clueless, and their stay at the crease was cut short as Jayant Yadav trapped Anderson plumb in front to get his first ODI wicket and in the very next ball, Mishra’s delivery breached Neesham’s defense and hit the middle stump. In the same over, MS Dhoni gave Mishra his fourth wicket with a flashy stumping to dismiss Tim Southee before Mishra returned to get his fifth by dismissing Ish Sodhi a couple of overs later.

Axar finished off the innings by castling Santner in the first of the 23^rd over with the scorecard reading just 79. In the last 52 balls, New Zealand managed to score just 16 runs and lost eight wickets and gifted the series to India a day before Diwali.

#5 MS Dhoni’s street start brilliance behind the stumps

MS Dhoni reminded us again why we should eternally be in love with him

MS Dhoni has the fastest hands in the East, a term that has been commonly used by Ravi Shastri in the recent past. In the series against New Zealand, the fans would have witnessed at least three instances of his street smart cricketing sense and how fast his hands work behind the stumps.

In the third ODI at Mohali, MS Dhoni was brilliant behind the stumps. First, it was Ross Taylor, who was deceived by the flight of Amit Mishra’s delivery and came forward to hit the ball for runs but was thoroughly beaten before Dhoni whipped off the bails in a flash.

Few balls later, Luke Ronchi was done in by Dhoni’s fast hands as he was lured into a drive by Mishra and in his haste, he dragged his right foot out of the crease before he the ball went past the outside edge of his bat into the hands of Dhoni. Ronchi did very well to drag his foot inside the crease but was not fast enough as Dhoni disturbed the bails of the stumps in the blink of an eye.

If these two instances were not sufficient, there was one more act of Dhoni’s brilliance when he ran Ross Taylor out even without looking at the stumps. In the fourth ODI at Ranchi, Ross Taylor flicked a Umesh Yadav delivery towards the fine leg boundary where Dhawal Kulkarni collected the ball and threw to his captain at the striker’s end.

Dhoni, who was way away in front of the stumps, received the ball and flicked it onto the stumps with his back turned to the stumps, with only a sense of where the stumps could have been. If it was a conventional keeper, he would have been waiting behind the stumps to collect the ball and that would have allowed the batsman to make it to the crease as the throw from the deep was not accurate.