New Zealand 337 for 8 (Mitchell 137, Phillips 106, Arshdeep 3-63, Rana 3-84) beat India 296 (Kohli 124, Reddy 53, Rana 52, Clarke 3-54, Foulkes 3-77) by 41 runs
They achieved another impressive feat in completing the job in Indore, handing India a first defeat in 14 home ODIs where they have won the toss.
And then, when Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja fell in the space of 28 balls, came the explosion. It was necessary, with India now needing 160 at nearly nine an over, and it came from both ends. Kohli punched, whipped and lofted his way from 74 off 76 balls to a century in 91, while Rana showed both muscle and finesse in rushing to his half-century in just 41 balls.
But Rana’s dismissal, which left India needing 61 off 38 balls, left the chase entirely in Kohli’s hands, and it was all over when he was ninth out after bringing the equation down to 46 from 27.
Together, Lennox and Phillips took 2 for 96 in 18 overs. India’s spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, bowled just six overs each and went for a combined 89 runs. Once again, New Zealand’s spinners had outbowled India.
And this, as in Rajkot, had a lot to do with how well their batters took on Kuldeep and Jadeja. Mitchell, in a manner now familiar, set the tone, jumping out to Kuldeep’s first ball and launching him for a straight six.
There was little breathing room for the spinners thereafter, and India didn’t even bring Jadeja on until the 30th over, trusting instead in their sixth bowler, Reddy, to do a job of bowling stump-to-stump medium-pace with the keeper up. He did this well at first, conceding just 17 in his first four overs, but he began looking increasingly innocuous as India kept him on for perhaps two overs too many, conceding 36 in his last four.
As India struggled to find a wicket through the middle overs, Mitchell and Phillips switched gears effortlessly. The first 70 runs of their partnership came in 89 balls; thereafter they plundered 149 in 99. Mitchell timed the ball ominously from the start, the clearest sign of his form the way he punched through the infield with a straight bat on both sides of the wicket, and attacked the spinners from all points: from yards down the pitch to right back by his stumps. Phillips, cutting with fast hands, and clearing the small boundaries with ease when he chose to, rushed from 21 off 36 to bring up his second ODI century off just 83 balls.
New Zealand looked set for at least 350 at one stage, but lost wickets in clumps through the death overs, with Mohammed Siraj bowling magnificently – getting his wobble-seam ball to grip, bowling relentless good lengths when that was required, and pinpoint yorkers and bouncers when that was the need of the hour – to finish with figures of 0 for 43 in ten overs and Arshdeep Singh and Rana more expensive but taking three wickets apiece.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
