Once again for the third time in the series, the Indian bowling attack failed to do much as the men in blue suffered their first-ever series whitewash in a bilateral series after 14 years. New Zealand defeats India by 5 wickets in the final ODI of the three-match series owing to whirlwind fifties from Martin Guptill and Colin de Grandhomme while chasing a target of 297 at Bay Oval in Mount Manganui.
Similar to the first two games, the Indian team is looking in a commanding position after the completion of the first innings as they registered the scores of 396/7 in their quota of 50 overs as KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Manish Pandey played dependable knocks. Earlier, it was the Kiwi Skipper, Kane Williamson who won the toss and asked the men in blue to bat first. India once again got off to a rough start as Mayank Agarwal walked back with 1 run to his name. Virat Kohli followed him quickly after hitting a six. However, Prithvi Shaw also soon got out and soon the visitors were down to 62/3 in the 12th over itself.
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However, Iyer and Rahul formed the partnership in the middle to avoid further hiccups as they added a 100-run partnership for the 4th wicket before Shreyas losing his concentration in the 31st over after scoring 62. Nonetheless, Rahul found a good partner in Manish Pandey, who scored runs at a good pace as he went on to score his 4th ODI century which he completed in the 45th over.
However, both of them out in the 47th over on back-to-back deliveries as Rahul was dismissed after scoring 112 by Hamish Bennett who was the chief destroyer for the Kiwis as he finished the game with a spell of 4/63.
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Chasing 297 runs on the board, New Zealand got a splendid start with Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls running through the Indian bowlers quite early in the innings. Guptill, in particular, showed his class by finding the boundary fence more often than not. He got equal support from Nicholls, who kept Indians chasing the leather more often than not.
It required a peach of the deliveries from Chahal to end the 106-run opening stand for New Zealand. Though Guptill walked back, Nicholls continued with Kane Williamson to add runs for the team. It was once again Chahal, who gave the breakthrough for India by removing Kane Williamson.
The man in-form Ross Taylor failed this time while James Neesham failed to capitalize on his start. The quick wickets helped India to make a comeback after Shardul Thakur removing well-set Henry Nicholls. Just when things looked drifting away, Tom Latham and Colin de Grandhomme finished the game with ease as the latter scored a whirlwind 58 off just 28 balls.
Brief Score:
New Zealand – 300/5 in 47.1 overs (M Guptill: 66, CDG: 58*, Y Chahal: 3/47) defeated India – 396/7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul: 112; H Bennett: 4/64, K Jamieson: 1/53) by 5 wickets and 17 balls to spare
Here is how Twitterati criticized India for the series loss:
Name- @BLACKCAPS
Work- Whitewash.
After being whitewashed in T20's , great effort from New Zealand to whitewash India in the One day Series.
Bumrah being wicketless in the series was a big factor. #NZvIND— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 11, 2020
India couldn't defend 347 and 296.
They couldn't chase 273.
Bumrah couldn't take a wicket.
Kohli couldn't score a ton.
India looked completely incompetent against the hosts, after winning the T20I series 5-0. #NZvInd
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) February 11, 2020
India couldn't chase 274 and couldn't defend 347 and 296.
New Zealand outplayed India in all departments in all 3 games and are deserved winners of the One Day Series. Many congratulations @BLACKCAPS for making it 3-0 #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/HcSqJgj4ah— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) February 11, 2020
Kohli 75 runs from 3 innings. Bumrah 0/167 from 30 overs.
Result: 3-0. #NZvInd— Raunak Kapoor (@RaunakRK) February 11, 2020
Winning is a habit and certainly need to make sure of that no matter what format we play. Hopefully team India will bounce in the test series. Well done @BLACKCAPS for winning the one day series… #NZvIND
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 11, 2020
https://twitter.com/FarziCricketer/status/1227166978256728064?s=20
https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/1227168433063653377?s=20
Virat Kohli scored least runs as captain in a bilateral ODI series.
Jasprit Bumrah did not pick a single wicket in a bilateral ODI series for the first time in his career.
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) February 11, 2020
New Zealand have done this convincingly….Hamilton, Auckland and Mount Manganui. Chased a big total, defended a small one….didn’t let Kohli score big, didn’t give a single wicket to Bumrah. What a turnaround. #NZvInd
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 11, 2020
New Zealand whitewash India with a crushing 3-0 ODI series win. Kohli only 75 runs in series (ave 25.00). Bumrah 30 overs 167 runs and no wickets (eco 5.56). 4th consecutive ODI win for NZ v IND (including the 2019 knockout). One-sided ODI series. Played New Zealand 👏🥳 #Cricket
— Daniel Alexander (@daniel86cricket) February 11, 2020
Major disappointments for India: Kohli 75 runs in 3 matches, Bumrah no wickets in 3 matches. Who would have thought?
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) February 11, 2020
#NZ complete their clean sweep 3-0, job done comprehensively & convincingly👌👏
Whattay racy finish to the chase by Colin De G, winning with 17 balls to spare chasing 297
Bumrah finishes with 0-167 in 30 ovs (3 matches)
India's first whitewash ODI series loss in 30yrs#NZvIND
— Kaushik LM (@LMKMovieManiac) February 11, 2020
