Matt Henry spent one over turning a cricket match into a demolition site and the rest of this series now has to live in its shadow.
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer were all gone for nought, India were bowled out for 89 in 26.4 overs, and a 244-run defeat at Bay Oval came within a single run of being the heaviest in their ODI history.
Yet! India are 2 and New Zealand 1, and Sunday’s finale at Mount Maunganui have a REAL WEIGHT behind it.
India have not won a bilateral ODI series away from home since Gautam Gambhir took charge, losing in Sri Lanka, Australia and England. New Zealand, whose run of 11 home series wins has already ended, are trying to avoid a first home series defeat in seven years.
New Zealand will be without Henry and Kyle Jamieson, who are now off to the Test camp. Kohli and Rohit are unlikely to play international cricket in New Zealand again, and a full house will expect a fitting farewell.
New Zealand will be dearly miss the services of Matt Henry and Kyle Jamieson in this game. Will Young’s 125 and Tim Seifert’s maiden ODI fifty were bright spots, but New Zealand’s batters have not yet found a way to build an innings against this attack.
India will be rattled, and Gambhir has admitted he is concerned by their frequent ODI collapses. Still, 89 all out looks more like one terrible morning than a trend especially with such an amount of experience in their ranks.
Cricket news prediction : India to win
Here’s how we think both sides will line up.
On the New Zealand side, Duffy should come in for one of the vacated pace spots. Tickner , if he has recovered from concussion, and the uncapped Randell are competing for the other. India will be without Shubman Gill, Anshul Kamboj , Jasprit Bumrah and Nitish Kumar Reddy , and Gurnoor Brar , the top wicket-taker of the series, misses out after being called up to the Test squad.
Will Young, Tim Seifert (wk), Nick Kelly, Dean Foxcroft or Mitch Hay, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Kristian Clarke, Matt Fisher, Jacob Duffy, Brett Randell
Rohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Auqib Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh
Bay Oval did serve up two very different pictures of itself. New Zealand piled up 333 on Friday, and India folded for 89 in under 27 overs, so anyone trying to read the surface has been handed contradictory evidence. The likeliest truth is that it rewards disciplined bowling with a fresh ball and rewards batters who are willing to wait for it to settle.
Chasing sides have a small edge in the record, with 17 wins for bowling first against 16 for batting first from 33 matches. Even so, the Friday defence was a rare result under lights at this ground in recent times. The forecast looks kind, so the captain who wins the toss will be choosing on conditions alone and not on any rain calculation. A first innings around the 238 average would be a sound base.
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Ajay Gandhar is a content producer for The Sporting News, working across English-language editions on a variety of content including betting and prediction content. He covers a number of sports including cricket and football.
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