Series lost, visitors battle to save face

[1]

Bengaluru, Dec. 6: If winning is a habit, so, unfortunately, is losing. New Zealand, whether they like it or not seem to have slipped into the tendency of losing matches rather than winning them.

For the Indians, the fourth one-dayer may well be a dead rubber, but not for the New Zealanders, who would like to have at least one victory against their name before they return home. After a promising start during the Test series, the tour has turned out to be a nightmare as it has progressed for the visitors.

At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, standing in the way of the Kiwis and brimming with confidence, are the Men in Blue, who have already clinched the series 3-0. Gautam Gambhir has revelled in his role as a captain, scoring successive centuries, and has shown that responsibility brings out the best out of the 29-year-old.

More importantly, it is the way Gambhir has scored his tons would worry the Kiwis. On both occasions, the southpaw has garnered runs giving little chance to the opposition and Daniel Vettori would like his men to come up with ideas to tie down his marauding counterpart. Gambhir is not the only headache for the visitors, as Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh too pose similar threats.

Even though it is India’s batting that has hogged the limelight so far, the bowlers have silently gone about their work hunting down the New Zealand batsmen in packs. While the return of Zaheer Khan has provided the cutting edge, Ashish Nehra has been nippy and Munaf Patel as tidy as ever.

Munaf in particular was able to keep up the pressure generated by Zaheer and Nehra in the Baroda game. This has reduced the burden on spinners R. Ashwin, Yuvraj, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. Off-spinner Ashwin’s ability to bowl during the powerplays has given more options to Gambhir.

They have set an example for the visitors to follow, which they haven’t been able to until now. For long, Kyle Mills along with Vettori have held the bowling department together. While, Vettori has been able to check the batsmen Mills hasn’t been able to do much.

He has leaked too many runs in the opening overs, which has put other bowlers under pressure, as the Indian batsmen have run riot. After managing to bowl out India in the first ODI, they have only picked up three wickets in the following two ODIs and that speaks volumes about their inability to make early inroads. And it is to their misfortune that they have run into an in-form Gambhir, not once but twice.

The inability of New Zealand’s bowlers has only increased with their batsmen — the team’s stronger suit — struggle to score runs. They have managed only three half-centuries so far and despite having quality batsmen in Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum.

Kane Williamson, who finished off the series against Bangladesh with a ton and earned himself a Test berth against India, hasn’t been able to do much.