New Delhi: After the top order, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey, failed with the bat, some sensible batting from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (39) and Kedar Jadhav (41) and resilience from the tail-enders in company of Hardik Pandya (36) brought India close to a win but the hosts lost the second ODI against New Zealand by six runs at Ferozeshah Kotla ground, here on Thursday.
With this win, New Zealand are now 1-1 in five-match series.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya continued with his good form as after winning the man-of-the-match award in his debut match against New Zealand at Dharamsala, he bowled a tidy spell, giving away 45 runs in nine overs and later went on to give jitters to the Kiwis, hitting 36 off 32 deliveries before being caught by Mitchell Santner off Trent Boult.
Chasing a target of 243 runs, Indian openers failed to click with Rohit scoring just 15 runs. Kohli, too, failed with the bat as he edged a Santner’s delivery to Ronchi behind the wickets for just nine runs. After the departure of Rahane (28) and manish Pandey (19), Kedhar Jadhav (41) and MS Dhoni brought some stability in the middle order. Dhoni’s wicket fell at 172, giving new hopes to the Kisiws. However, Pandya’s heroic innings brought back life in the Indian chase, but his attempt to hit cross the ropes proved costly as Pandya gave away his wicket with India still needing 11 runs. Finally last wicket fell with India fell in the form of Jasprit Bumrah with the hosts still needing seven runs to win.
Earlier, thanks to a fantastic century by skipper kane Williamson, New Zealand set a target of 243 runs before. The second ball dismissal of Martin Gupttill by Umesh Yadav put the Kiwis on backfoot, but Wiiliamson forged a good partnership with Tom Latham that helped reach 120 before Latham was trapped infront of the wickets by Jadhav for 46. Willamson continued to play his wonderful innings, scoring his first century against India. However, ##Wickets continued to fall on the other end. New Zealand at one point of time were 224 for six at the end of 45 over. However, Bumrah bowled a couple of excellent overs for India towards to end to finish at 35/3 in 10 overs.
Kane Williamson was adjudged man of the match.