The third ODI of the five-match ODI series between the hosts New Zealand and the visitors India will be played on Monday (28 January) at Bay Oval (Mount Maunganui). It will be another day/night encounter which will begin at 15:00 local time (07:30 IST).
Currently, the visiting side India is leading the series by 2-0 and another victory in this series will secure this trophy for them while the hosts New Zealand can’t afford another defeat in this series.
India won the first ODI of the series by 8 wickets at Napier. On last Saturday (26 January), the visiting side won the second ODI of the series by 90 runs at Bay Oval (Mount Maunganui).
New Zealand cricket team
The hosts have disappointed with their performances in this series as the whole team needs to improve hugely to put a serious challenge in this series.
The bowlers have failed to pick up the early wickets in both the games and it has hugely hampered for them in the series. Meanwhile, the top-order batsmen have also failed to perform in this series and the batting order hasn’t seen the proper threatening partnerships.
Form guide (last five ODIs; starting with most recent): Lost, Lost, Won, Won and Won
Indian cricket team
While the host side has hugely disappointed in this series, the visiting side India has totally provided the opposite performances. Most of the Indian players have not just performed well in this series they also dominated against the opponents.
In one side, the top-order and middle-batsmen are in the great forms with the bats. Meanwhile, on the other side, the front-line pacers and the main spinners are very consistent in their roles.
Form guide (last five ODIs; starting with most recent): Won, Won, Won, Won and Lost
Full squads
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor
India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), Khaleel Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ambati Rayudu, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya
Also read: New Zealand Police Comes With A Hilarious Post After India’s Second ODI Victory
Predicted Pitch Report
Generally, the Bay Oval track allows a good stroke play for the batsmen and we have observed it in the last ODI on Saturday. It is expected to maintain the same character on Monday.
Weather Forecast
The weather is expected to be sunny with the temperature of 25-28 degree Celsius. There is no rain threat and once again it is expected that we can experience the full game without any interruption.
Key Stats Preview:
- New Zealand has played seven ODIs at Bay Oval (Mount Maunganui) where they won three matches and lost the other four matches.
- The last ODI on Saturday was India’s first international match at Bay Oval (Mount Maunganui) which India won by 90 runs.
- New Zealand right-arm pacer Tim Southee (26 wickets) is two wickets away to become the second most wicket-taking bowler for New Zealand against India in ODI history.
- Indian skipper Virat Kohli (1,999 runs) is one run away to become the second Indian skipper to score 2,000 or more away ODI runs (home of opposition; excluding neutral venues). Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is the record holder who scored 2,846 ODI runs as captain at the away venues.
- Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni (334 ODIs for India) is set to become the third most ODI matches played for the Indian cricket team. With this game, Dhoni is set to surpass the former Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin (334 ODIs for India). Only the former Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar (463 ODIs for India) and Rahul Dravid (340 ODIs for India) are ahead of him in this list.
- In his last three ODI innings, the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni has remained unbeaten (55*, 87* and 48*) in every time.
- Indian cricketer Kedar Jadhav (967 runs) needs to score 33 runs to complete 1,000 ODI runs.
