After the drubbing 2-0 defeat, the Indian cricket team failed to win the just-concluded third and final ODI match against New Zealand. While everyone was expecting the ‘men in blue’ to end the series on a positive note, however, Virat Kohli and co. failed to stop the hosts from chasing the total and suffered a thumping defeat to seal the series by 0-3.
The Indian bowling attack was left clueless after being smashed to all the corners by the New Zealanders as they handed Team India a rare series whitewash. It was India’s first whitewash defeat in an ODI series since their 0-5 defeat against West Indies in 1988/89.
The Indian batsmen tried their best to keep the hopes alive in the first innings, however, the batting attack of team India failed them. Asked to bat first, India started on a bad note by losing Manish Pandey and skipper Virat Kohli early in the match, as they failed to leave a mark with their bat.
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KL Rahul, the ‘multi-dimensional’ player of India as termed by Kohli, gave yet another brilliant performance as he took the numbers on the scoreboard a bit higher. He was the prime reason behind the run flow of the team until his departure. He scored 112 runs off 113 deliveries, smashing 9 fours and 2 sixes.
After the match, Virat Kohli opened up about what went wrong in the match. Talking about their performance, Virat claimed that New Zealand deserved this 3-0 because of their brilliant performance throughout. He said:
“The games were not as bad as the scoreline suggests. But the way we fielded and bowled, the composure wasn’t enough to win games. Didn’t deserve to be on the winning side this series. Haven’t played so badly, but we didn’t grab opportunities. They played with lot more intensity than we did. They deservedly won 3-0. We are excited for the Test series. We now have a balanced team and need to step out on the park with the right kind of mindset.”
