India In New Zealand: Mission-I Successfully Accomplished

by Siddharth Raman

The new outfits for the Indian ODI team do not seem to have any affect on their performance in the fifty over format of the game. They repeated the same trend they followed in Sri Lanka – steamroll the home team until the penultimate game of the series and somehow lose the plot in the dead rubber (the Australian test team during their ‘invincible’ phase also followed the same trend). But nonetheless it would have been a very satisfying performance for Dhoni and his boys after their performance in the T20’s.

The batsmen seemed to get acclimatised to the weather (and also the symmetry of the ground in the case of the AMI stadium) and proved that they learnt from their mistakes committed in the T20’s. One cannot help but compare this series with the ODI series played seven years back. In a seven ODI series where the score line read 5-2 in favour of New Zealand the famed Indian batting line up had no answer to the seaming and swinging conditions. The fact that Zaheer Khan had to play the role of batting hero in one of the wins and Virender Sehwag was the only Indian batsman to cross the three figure mark (he did it twice) shows how miserable a time the Indian batsmen had. A comparison of the statistics of the present and previous series says it all. In 2002-03 the Indian batting line up managed 1048 runs in seven innings at an average of 150 and in 2009 the figures read 1203 in five innings averaging slightly above 300. An increase of 100%! Another point to be remembered is that only two of the ODI’s lasted fifty over’s – all the more reason for people to believe that this Indian batting line up is one of the best ever.

Now if overall run rate of a team is more than six an over it cannot be because of the efforts of just one batsman, at least three out of the top six batsmen have performed consistently. A look at each of the ODI’s proves just that. At McLean Park, Napier the Indian batsmen warmed up to the conditions with Sehwag, Dhoni and Raina finding some rhythm by posting half centuries. This match saw Dhoni play one of his trademark shots (which we were not treated to for a while) – the flick over mid wicket for a delivery which is almost at yorker length with the bat being wielded like a magic wand and his left leg air borne. Not the prettiest of cricketing shots but one the most effective ways to deal with a yorker! At the Westpac stadium in Wellington Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir all got starts before rain played spoilsport. Tendulkar regained some form in this format of the game after having a torrid time in the emerald island. A well composed half century with some eclectic stroke play-he would have been disappointed for missing out on a century but wouldn’t have to wait for long.

Sunday mornings generally entail sleeping in and waking up in time for lunch. But Sachin Tendulkar was the cause of sleep deprivation for a lot of Indian fans on a Sunday thanks to one of the most attacking innings played in ODI cricket for quite some time. The AMI stadium at Christchurch was brought alive by some brilliant batting and everyone would have been reminded of the 21 year old makeshift opener they saw fifteen years back at the Eden Park. This time it was a 35 year old entertaining them but with the zeal of a teenager. Had it not been for an abdomen injury the cricketing fraternity might have been treated to its first double century in ODI cricket. Tendulkar along with Yuvraj and then Dhoni powered India to being two boundaries away from the 400 run mark. The New Zealand batsmen put up a brave front and until the 44th over they would have believed they still had a chance to pull it off. Nonetheless no Indian supporter would have regretted sacrificing some sleep on that Sunday!

Tendulkar was rested for the fourth ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton and as if on cue Sehwag picked up from where Tendulkar left off in the previous match. Chasing in a rain curtailed match is never easy thanks a certain Mr. Duckworth and Mr. Lewis (ask Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher). But Sehwag came up with the perfect solution to one of the most complex equations known to world cricket – maul the bowling and make the bowlers throw in the towel so that by the time the rain comes you are way ahead of where Duckworth and Lewis would have wanted you to be. Surpassing Azharrudin’s record for the fastest century in an ODI by an Indian and ably supported by Gambhir – Sehwag made the festival of Holi even more colourful.

The last ODI of the series was sold out courtesy the sizeable Indian community in Auckland and one could not be blamed for confusing it to be either the Wankhede or Chepauk. However, it turned out to be an anti climax for the Indian supporters who were instead treated to the Jesse Ryder show. With three wickets he helped in restricting India to the average of their previous tour and then batted in a way which would have made Mark Greatbatch proud. Vijay Mallya and his team at the Bangalore Royal Challengers would have been pretty happy after seeing this performance from Jesse Ryder and will be hoping that he is able to bring about a change in their ‘test’ batting line up.

All in all a good series for India. Another feather in Dhoni’s cap (it must be quite heavy by now). One would hope that the last ODI acts a wakeup call for them and complacency y does not set in before the start of the test series. Here’s looking forward to a keenly fought test series!

ODI 5: The Fall After the High

Sachin: Caught into an Unsuspecting Controversy

ODI 4 Preview: India Look for Series Win, Minus Sachin

Sachin Steers India to Spectacular Victory

ODI 2: Incomplete Innings Brought to End by Prevalent Rain

Dhoni Sings Tendulkar’s Praise, Crowe Warns Against Zaheer

Life Before Sport: India Won On a Day when Cricket Lost

Ishant Poses A Problem for Dhoni

Daniel Vettori’s Dream Team for the ODI’s

BCCI asking too much from accommodating Kiwis

NZ’s Strongest Stance: No Warm for Team India Over ICL Deadlock

It’s Official: Sachin and ICL Cannot Gel