India win the one day series

India won the fourth ODI at Hamilton to seal the fate of this one-day series. India have done exceedingly well with the bat in the series so far and Bhajji Singh’s prediction that India is going to make a clean sweep is a distinct possibility. It will really require something very very special from the NZ team in general and from their bowlers in particular to win the last inconsequential ODI.
NZ were bolstered by the return of their captain Vettori, and after winning the toss, he planned to do something different by asking Indians to bowl first. Indian bowling was much better to begin with and the NZ openers didn’t find the going easy. However, much sense prevailed and both Ryder and McCullum decided to stay on and wait for the loose deliveries. McCullum is playing as a batsman these days, and he has proved that he has all the qualities of a modern ODI batsman. Both Zaheer and Praveen bowled a decent line and length and it was not until the introduction of Ishant that the NZ batsmen really started to feel at ease. Ishant did not have a very good first over, and suddenly the momentum started to shift in the favour of NZ. Ishant also bowled a couple of no balls and it was good to see Bhajji making a fine save on a free hit. Dhoni, as expected introduced spin and immediately gave a life to McCullum, a missed stumping. The first wicket stand was eventually broken when Yuvi deceived Ryder and a top edge was safely taken by Raina. However, with the spin attack of Yuvi and Yousuf Pathan, the Kiwis were strangulated a bit and that also bought them the wicket of Taylor. Guptill joined McCullum and slowly but surely McCullum also started to play a bit of shots, he is famous for.
McCullum fell leg before to Zaheer and Oram fell immediately to Ishant in the next over. That brought McGlashan to the crease and he was instrumental in taking NZ to a healthy total. Thankfully for NZ, Guptill departed at the right time, since he was not contributing much and Elliott in company with McGlashan did some repair work to take NZ to a decent total. To get 270 in 47 overs is a pretty demanding task unless you have to bowl to someone like Sehwag and then there are some more like him to follow.
For NZ, there were a few positives to come from this innings. Their batsmen did reasonably well and McGlashan played some interesting strokes and made a nice half century to support his candidature for further selections. Indian bowling was definitely better but their fielding was again disappointing. Dhoni, Sehwag and Gambhir let go easy chances and with a team like NZ you may be able to afford these lapses, but definitely not with Aussies or S. Africa.
Indian chase began on a wonderful note and Sehwag, as he has always looked on this tour, again looked invincible. The whole innings was more like a highlights package and I don’t think there is much to discuss about that. Sehwag kept on hitting the ball with utter disdain and Gambhir did just the right thing by rotating the strike and letting Sehwag take much of it. However, something that deserves mention is the running between the wickets. Sehwag was scoring boundaries at will but never did he refuse a quick single and that was the most heartening aspect of the partnership for me. None of the NZ bowlers was spared and the run rate just kept on soaring. I really find it difficult to write something about Sehwag’s batting, because you could not really pick something from the innings. He kept on going for his shots and there were a couple of miscued hits as well (that is practically always the case with Sehwag, the way he bats) but overall he looked very much in control. The NZ bowlers looked like some club standard bowlers who were dispatched to all parts of the ground. That Sehwag made his century in 60 balls is just an addition to statistics, but he never was troubled through out. Gambhir gave him good support and with the rain interruptions, the only question was if the match would indeed be completed. But on India’s part it was good that they ended up winning (they would have won the series otherwise also). Somehow, I feel that it was good for NZ too that they lost. May be, this will help them realise that they were truly outplayed and they need to make some serious amends.
Things look very good and positive for India but they have to guard against complacency for the Test matches are a different ball game altogether. Dhoni also need to give a kick in the butt to his players and also ask someone to give him one as well (perhaps Robin Singh) as the Indian fielding was again pretty ordinary. Finally, it is good to see Indian team realising its full potential. Theoretically speaking, India always have a good collection of highly skilled batsmen but it has seldom happened that all of them have fired on a consistent basis and help India won continuously (touch wood).
That’s all for now. Will be back with the report for the last ODI and an analysis of the whole ODI series.