By: Tarish Bhatt
New Zealand were not defending a massive total in Ranchi. The target was very much within India’s reach. Still, they managed to hold the hosts 19 runs short of the target, thanks to their superb fielding and gritty bowling.
The Blackcaps managed to level the five-match series 2-2 to set the series decider in Vizag. There was a time when India were comfortably placed in the game. But, they lost plenty of wickets within no time.
New Zealand dismissed Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya inside 40 runs. It was always going to be tough for India to win after that, and the Kiwis sealed an impressive victory.
“Coming here, we had to decide between dew that may or may not come in versus the deterioration. The dew didn’t come in, so that perhaps worked in our favour,” Kane Williamson said.
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Rahane scored a fifty, while Virat Kohli and Axar Patel also made handy contributions. But, none of them managed to anchor the innings, and at the end India had no one left to score the remaining runs.
Earlier, India made a comeback in the match by restricting the Blackcaps to 260. At one point, the visitors were looking set for a 300 plus total, after they got a brisk start from Martin Guptill and Tom Latham.
The Indians, however, crawled back into the game with some good bowling towards the end. The spinners, in particular, pulled things back, while Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav also bowled well.
Amit Mishra finished with three wickets. Axar, Umesh, Hardik and Dhawan Kulkarni took one apiece.
