India vs New Zealand | Williamson ton takes Kiwis to first win of India tour

India vs New Zealand | Williamson ton takes Kiwis to first win of India tour

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Ā© BCCI

After 3 Tests and 1 ODI, New Zealand finally showed up in the tour by winning the second ODI today by 6 runs to level the series 1-1. Kane Williamson led with a well-paced century to take the visitors to 242 before the Kiwi pacers quelled a late Indian fightback for the 9th wicket to seal the match.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 242/9 in 50 overs (Williamson 118(128), Latham 46(46), Bumrah 3/35, Mishra 3/60) beat India 236 all out in 49.3 overs (Kedar Jadhav 41(37), MS Dhoni 39(65), Southee 3/52)

India start shaky

India got off to a bad start when Rohit Sharma nicked a Trent Boult out-swinger to Luke Ronchi with the score at just 15. As the umpire raised his finger, Sharma clutched his arm in pain, and judging by the pain he looked to be in, the Mumbai lad might be a big doubt for the next game.

Virat Kohli joined Ajinkya Rahane at the crease but his stay was short-lived. Kohli tried to flick a Santner delivery down to fine leg, but the ball caught an edge off the bat and with Ronchi's quick catch, Kohli made his way back to the dressing room.

Rahane tried to raise the run-rate with a few good shots, but he again succumbed to a Southee short ball. Rahane was unable to get on top of the bounce when he tried to pull it to fine leg but Anderson pulled off a world-class catch to send Rahane packing with the score reading 72/3.

In the very next over, Manish Pandey made things even more difficult for India when he tried to steal a run that wasn't there for the taking. Santner came up with a perfect throw after making a quick dash from square leg, and Ronchi made no mistake as Pandey was more than a few inches short of his crease.

Dhoni and Jadhav settle the middle order

Dhoni and Jadhav then started building up a partnership in the middle overs as India looked to consolidate from a difficult position they found themselves in. The Indian captain played the anchor role while Jadhav played all the shots in the book to bring the run rate back under control. After two fours and two sixes, Jadhav finally fell for 41 off just 37 balls when he tried to edge the ball back to third man but got a faint edge off Henry that carried easily to Ronchi.

Dhoni found it difficult to get easy runs as the Kiwis piled the pressure not allowing any singles. His stand came to an end when he mistimed his shot and Southee took a brilliant catch changing direction quickly catching the ball with one hand inches above the ground.Ā 

The next man in was Pandya, who joined Axar Patel at the crease, but the latter was sent back in the next over by Guptill for a score of 17 off 22 balls. Mishra didn't fare any better as a top edge of Guptill's last ball ended in the hands of Bracewell to take India's score to 183/8.

Pandya and Yadav makeĀ the last stand

When Pandya and Yadav came to the crease, India required 59 off 9 overs. The duo's partnership of 49 runs brought the Indians close to the target. With two overs to go, India required just 16, and when Pandya scored five off the first two balls, India's hopes of taking a 2-0 lead in the series were reignited.

But the loss of Pandya, who edged a Boult ball to deep extra cover with eight balls to go, put an end to India's hopes. Southee gave Bumrah a taste of his own medicine with a perfect yorker toĀ dislogeĀ the bails and give the Kiwis their first win of the tour.

Williamson leads from the front

Earlier, New Zealand got off to the worst possible start when Martin Guptill was sent back to the pavilion by Umesh Yadav. In just the second ball of the match, the pacer came up with an absolute peach of a delivery that bounced on middle and off and moved a little to clip the outside of the off stump.

But, Tom Latham and Kane Williamson steadied the innings with a partnership of 120 with Latham scoring at a rate of a run-a-ball. New Zealand could have been in a host of trouble had Pandya played his part in a chance given by Willaimson when he was at 46. However, the all-rounder was unable to get his fingers under the ball, when Williamson's mistimed shot fell just short of the Baroda youngster.

The partnership was finally broken by Kedar Jadhav, who trapped Latham plumb in front of the stumps. Ross Taylor then joined his captain in the middle and played an uncharacteristically slow innings scoring 21 off 42 balls with just 2 boundaries before he was sent packing by Amit Mishra.

Corey Anderson's stay at the crease was also short-lived as he too was unable to read Mishra's bowling variations and found himself caught LBW at the score of 21.

Williamson, who had been criticized for his performance during the tour, kept on rotating the strike while still getting a boundary here and there. The Kiwi captain completed his first century of the tour, but a mistimed shot, while trying to increase the run rate, ended up in the hands of Rahane at long-off. As the crowd gave him a standing ovation, the scorecard read 213/5, out of which Williamson had accumulated 118.

As has been the trend in this series so far, New Zealand crumbled under pressure yet again. The next four wickets fell for just 29 runs, with Jasprit Bumrah finishing off the tail with some excellent death-over bowling. Bumrah ended his ten overs with numbers of 35/3 as New Zealand set the Men in Blue a target of 243.

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