Black Caps may have tossed win away
Correctly reading the Kanpur wicket is sure to be at the forefront of Kane Williamson’s mind as the Black Caps prepare for a shot at history on Sunday.
Indian captain Virat Kohli believes his Kiwi counterpart got it wrong in India’s six-wicket, series-levelling win in Pune, where Williamson won the coin toss and elected to bat first.
Williamson and openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro were all back in the hut in the first seven overs, before Ross Taylor’s dismissal resulted in the visitors sagging to 58-4 after 16 overs.
While the Black Caps, chasing their first bilateral ODI series win in India, might have been surprised by the way the pitch played, Kohli couldn’t believe his luck when Williamson told his toporder to pad up on Wednesday night (NZT).
‘‘We thought the wicket was going to play a bit slower during the day and be better to bat on in the evening, and that’s exactly how it turned out,’’ Kohli said after his side chased down New Zealand’s 290-9 with four overs to spare.
‘‘We still needed a good performance with the ball and I thought the bowlers were really clinical, and the fielders as well, so I’m pretty satisfied.’’
No 6 Henry Nicholls’ patient 42, some powerful hitting from Colin de Grandhomme (41 runs) and Tom Latham’s 38 were the guts of New Zealand’s innings, while Mitchell Santner (29) and Tim Southee’s 25 not out also helped them to a respectable total.
Williamson, who has scored nine runs from 28 balls in the first two matches of the series, defended his decision to bat first in Pune.
‘‘Whatever you do, when you win the toss or lose the toss you want to do it well and we weren’t quite good enough at the top,’’ he said.
‘‘Credit to the way India bowled. Their opening spell was was very, very good, put us under a lot of pressure.’’
However, the New Zealand captain will no doubt take an extra moment or two when he inspects the wicket in Kanpur ahead of the third ODI, which starts on Sunday night.
Led by right-arm seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who finished with 3-45, the hosts will go into the decider as firm favourites to back up last year’s 3-2 ODI series win against the Black Caps on home soil.
Kumar was outstanding in Pune. He started the rot by firstly nicking out Guptill (11 runs), and then knocking over Munro (10) with a subtle change of pace.
‘‘Today, with the wicket being slow, it was heartening to see them [bowlers] getting [wickets] in proper, conventional ways, not getting ugly wickets. They were proper wickets that fast bowlers like to get,’’ Kohli said.
‘‘We spoke about bouncing back, we’ve bounced back now in Pune and now we would like to capitalise on this momentum and play similar sort of cricket in Kanpur to get the win.’’
By the time New Zealand’s new ball pair of Trent Boult, who was near unplayable in New Zealand’s six-wicket win in the first match in Mumbai, and Southee got a crack, Kohli’s prediction the wicket would become easier to bat on had materialised.
Boult finished with 0-54 from his 10 overs and Southee finished with 1-60, as India cruised past New Zealand’s mediocre total.
‘‘We came here with high hopes. But we put a much better performance together in Mumbai. Not so much today, but we’re playing against India, a very good opposition. We need to play better come Kanpur,’’ Williamson said.
The good news for the Black Caps is the winner has alternated in the last eight ODIs between the sides.