India 3, New Zealand 0
Mount Maunganui, January 28
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma forged a century-plus partnership as India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the third ODI here today to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series and signal their preparedness for this year's World Cup. Sharma (62) combined with captain Kohli (60) in a 113-run partnership to set up their successful chase before Ambati Rayudu (40) completed the formalities with Dinesh Karthik, who was 38 not out, as India romped home with seven overs to spare.
New Zealand were earlier dismissed for 243 from 49 overs, their third successive failure to last full 50 overs. India have effortlessly outplayed New Zealand so far and are unlikely to miss Kohli, who is now being rested for the last two ODIs and all three Twenty20 matches.
While New Zealand managed to negate the left-arm wrist-spin of Kuldeep Yadav for the first time and keep him wicketless, the pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the recalled Hardik Pandya shared seven wickets among them to deny them a big total.New Zealand's innings was well below par on a pitch that had slowed down since the second game on Saturday with Ross Taylor (93) and Tom Latham (51) combining for 119 runs in the hosts' only substantial partnership in the series so far.
Starting trouble for Kiwis
The failure of openers Martin Guptill (13) and Colin Munro (7) to again give New Zealand a decent start will no doubt be the biggest concern for coach Gary Stead with the World Cup in England just four months away. Guptill has scored just 299 runs in 11 games since last January, but 235 of those runs have come from three innings. Munro has accumulated 265 runs from 14 innings and has been dismissed in single figures seven times.
Batting together, they have averaged just 23.44 for the first wicket in the same period and, on Monday, combined for just 10 runs before Munro was caught at slip by Sharma off Shami. Guptill followed him 16 runs later when wicketkeeper Karthik snaffled a lazy attempt at a drive from a Kumar delivery to leave New Zealand 26/2 in the seventh over and under pressure they never really recovered from.
Spectacular Pandya
An airborne Pandya took a spectacular catch at midwicket to dismiss Kane Williamson for 28 and finished with figures of 2/45 on his return to the side. Pandya and KL Rahul, who were suspended by BCCI earlier this month, had their bans lifted last week. — Reuters
Virat says
Intensity won’t drop
"I don’t think that intensity will drop. I am happy that I am leaving when we have won the series. The intensity is going to be the same because it’s a team culture now and not necessarily something to do with me"
Batting looks settled
"When Rayudu starts playing like that, you start feeling more confident about the batting line-up. Karthik is in great form as well, he can step in at any time if we need to shuffle the middle order, MS is hitting the ball really well, so I don’t think after the first three games, we’ve a lot to worry about"
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