India vs New Zealand | Takeaways: Indian spinners’ coming of age and the MS Dhoni factor

India brilliant with the bat, but New Zealand are no pushovers

It is the first time in India’s ODI cricket history that India’s top five scored 40+ runs in a single match and that says something about India’s ODI batting pool. On a flatbed at the Bay Oval, the Indian top-three got going on their set template and New Zealand never really took their feet off the pedal. While India got most of their runs off boundaries, New Zealand restricted the easy singles and doubles that was a regularity for the Indians in Australia.

Even during the Virat Kohli-Ambati Rayudu partnership, New Zealand kept asking the duo to get their runs in boundaries. The first 27 balls of the partnership brought 24 runs, but in the process, they produced a few half chances too. The biggest mistake was that they relied more on those chances for far too long and didn’t go defensive then. The time they did in the 35th over, they got leg side field in and resorted to a 7-4 field set. It was a well-planned tactics that bore fruit at the start of the 40th over, as the Indians failed to find the gap and there was a 25-ball boundary-less period. They learnt their lessons on the go, and it was something they would be really proud of.

More than any game, this match was the true indication of India’s spin revolution

In the Champions Trophy league game against Sri Lanka in 2017, India were comfortably placed at 178 for 2 in 33 overs and could have easily gone on to score 350. However, the failure of Virat Kohli up top and Yuvraj Singh’s inability to open his arms resulted in India managing only 321 runs at the end. Then Ravindra Jadeja conceded runs at 9 runs an over, while Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya making sure that the game was lost comfortably. It was a classic case of middle-over management failure - both in terms of batting and bowling.

One can draw the parallel of this match to that. They reached 179 for 2 in the 31st over and were well on course to score 350 today. The top-order had given them the base they needed, but a 25-ball boundary-less period in the last 10 overs meant they lost the initiative. However, to their rescue, the bowling unit was not the same as the one against Sri Lanka in 2017 and had enough spine to strangle the opposition on a flatbed. Much has been written about the leg-spinning duo and they have been haunting in tandem, and this game just outlines the fact that the Indian cricket has come a long way in the last one and half year.

The MS Dhoni factor

Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina in the limited-overs cricket, and Virat Kohli along with Ishant Sharma in Tests owe Dhoni a lot for his faith when others didn't believe in them. Their beginnings were frustrating and nowhere close to what the world was expecting them to be. Amidst the popular clamour of calling for their head, Dhoni backed them enough. Those were the classic cases of ridiculous trust reaping dividends. Years down the line, Kohli decided to pay back and put up an amount of trust on his predecessor that was never-seen-before in international cricket.

Dhoni is finally paying back to his skipper as the World Cup comes close. He has the lowest score of 48* in the four assignment, but more than that, he seems to bat with a fluid mindset. His keeping has gone on to be better than before and Kuldeep Yadav still reports to him after each dismissal. Dhoni is always so good to watch when he plays the game with the childlike enthusiasm and today was another such day where he brought level-headedness to the table.

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