With India and New Zealand playing their first ODI in Mumbai, a lot was expected from the Indian team to continue their current dominant run in the ODI circuit. However, it seems that they were matched by the brilliant New Zealanders who made a big target seem pretty easy at the end.
There were a few mistakes that the Indians made, but here are the biggest of them:
Poor opening stand:
The opening stand of Dhawan and Rohit failed today and that put a little pressure on the total runs that were scored. Kohli did manage to find a way to take India to a great score, but Rohit and Dhawan should have stuck around for a bit longer.
Dhawan was removed with some fantastic bowling from Boult but Rohit should have played himself in instead of trying to be explosive. That proved costly and heaped pressure on the middle order.
Middle-order not contributing enough:
Apart from Dinesh Karthik, the middle order did not really turn up today. While Jadhav, Dhoni and Pandya got starts, they did not convert them and that proved the difference of some 20-30 more runs to the total.
Karthik was good in the role that he was given and made a strong case to be selected again for the next match. Kedar Jadhav and Dhoni will need to play better the next game.
Failing to capitalize on wickets:
India got off to a decent start in the second innings and were able to get 3 of the Kiwi wickets before the 100-run mark. However, they did not capitalize on that start and let the New Zealand middle-order to get in.
Taylor and Latham were excellent as they soaked the pressure, both from the bowlers and the atmosphere to script a great win at Mumbai.
Spinners not able to dominate:
The spinners – Chahal and Kuldeep were not able to dominate their opponents as they played really well to ensure that they did not get any inroads. Chahal and Kuldeep have been India’s main bowlers in the middle overs and their threat was mitigated.
This allowed the Kiwis to rotate the strike instead of going for the big shots and was the main reason behind their victory.
Missed run-outs:
There were a couple of missed run-out chances that could have made a difference. While it is expecting too much for every throw to hit directly, even one hit would have proved to be costly for the Kiwis.
Taylor was struggling and was not really able to run between the wickets because of the punishing weather.
By Rohit Nair
