Visitors lose fifth ODI by 87 runs to go down 0-4
Wellington: A listless Indian cricket team slumped to its worst ODI series defeat in New Zealand, going down 0-4, after the Black Caps hammered them by 87 runs in the inconsequential fifth and final one-dayer here on Friday.
Going into the match trailing 0-3 in the five-match series, the famed India batting came a cropper once again, bundled out for 216 in 49.4 overs by New Zealand, while chasing 304 at Westpac stadium here.
Virat Kohli’s 82 was the only saving grace as the visitors failed to put up a fight against the Kiwi bowlers, led superbly by debutant Matt Henry (4/38).
Earlier, Ross Taylor slammed his second successive hundred to power the hosts to an imposing 303 for five.
Besides the tie in the third ODI in Auckland, India had suffered defeats in Napier and Hamilton (twice) and Friday’s defeat continued their disastrous overseas performance as they had lost the ODI series against South Africa before coming here.
India had lost 2-5 to New Zealand in a seven-match ODI series in 2002-03. The last time the Indians failed to win even a single match in New Zealand was in 1975-76 and 1980-81, losing 0-2 in both the two-match series.
Put into bat, Taylor (102) shared a 152-run partnership with Kane Williamson (88), who scored his fifth consecutive half-century, for the third wicket to rescue New Zealand from a precarious 41-2 at one stage.
Taylor’s 106-ball innings was studded with 10 hits to the fence and one six, while Williamson blasted eight fours and one six in his 91-ball innings here.
For India, Varun Aaron (2-60) was the most successful bowler, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-48) and Mohammad Shami (1-61) provided decent support. Virat Kohli took the only other wicket to fall, while the spinners, R Ashwin (0-37) and Ravindra Jadeja (0-54) went wicket-less.
Chasing 304 runs for their first win on the tour, the Men in Blue got off to a disastrously slow start as they needed six overs to get to a double-digit score, losing a wicket in the interim.
Rohit Sharma (4) was the first to go, giving slip-catching practice to Taylor in the 5th over bowled by Kyle Mills (2-35).
Shikhar Dhawan (9), coming back into the eleven after spending the last match on sidelines, also looked uncomfortable as Henry finally get rid off him, taking this first international wicket.
Four overs later, with the score at 30/2, Ajinkya Rahane (2) missed a straight delivery from Henry, trying to play it off his legs and was out plumb LBW.
India were staring at another massive defeat even as Kohli put up some resistance and finally he found some support in Ambati Rayudu. The latter took his time getting set, hitting two fours off the 40 balls he faced, but he couldn’t get past 20 runs.
Looking to hit Henry over square on the off-side, Rayudu stepped out and made room only to hit it straight to Williamson.
This was a serious blow for India and though Kohli and Dhoni put up a fighting 67 runs for the fifth wicket once Kohli fell the rest couldnot provide able support to the Indian captain.
After sometime Dhoni too perished, caught at long-off trying to clear the ropes, off Williamson (2-19) in the 45th over. He scored 47 runs off 72 balls, with three fours, as the 4-0 score-line loomed large. And that was more or less the end of the match. (PTI)
Score board
New Zealand innings (50 overs maximum)
Guptill c Shami b Aaron   16
Ryder c Rahane b Kumar    17
Williamson c Rahane b Aaron 88
L Taylor c Dhawan b Shami 102
B McCullum c Sharma b Kohli 23
Neesham not out    34
L Ronchi†not out   11
Total (5 wckts in 50 ovrs)Â Â Â 303
Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-41, 3-193, 4-243, 5-274.
Bowling: Mohammed Shami 10-3-61-1, B Kumar   8-0-48-1, VR Aaron 10-0-60-2, R Ashwin 6-0-37-0, RA Jadeja 9-0-54-0, V Kohli 7-0-36-1.
India innings (target: 304 runs from 50 overs)
R Sharma c Taylor b Mills    4
Dhawan c N Mc’llum b Henry 9
Kohli c sub b N McCullum    82
Rahane lbw Henry   2
Rayudu c Williamson b Henry 20
Dhoni c Neesham b W’son   47
Ashwin b Williamson   7
Jadeja c Guptill b Mills   5
B Kumar c Ronchi b Henry 20
Shami not out   14
Aaron b Neesham   0
Total (all out; 49.4 overs)Â Â Â 216
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-20, 3-30, 4-78, 5-145, 6-167, 7-174, 8-181, 9-215.
Bowling: Mills 10-1-35-2, McClenaghan 10-0-45-0, Henry 10-1-38-4, Neesham 5.4-0-45-1, McCullum 10-1-33-1, Williamson 4-0-19-2.