Following the come-from-behind tie at Auckland, India would have hoped for a much better show in the do-or-die game at Hamilton than they had put up in the first three ODIs. Unfortunately for India, they did well only in phases and were disappointing overall in both the batting and bowling department. Poor top order batting and inept bowling by the inexperienced pacers were the two key reasons why India could not compete with New Zealand in the must win clash on Tuesday. The seven-wicket loss was a fair indication of the gap between the teams under the given conditions.
As explained in the preview to the clash, India needed to make some changes to the squad. Then did and, somewhat shockingly, even dropped Shikhar Dhawan, but their top order batting was pretty ordinary. In the absence of Dhawan, Virat Kohli was asked to open the innings, but he found out why opening is such a specialist task as he looked rather uncomfortable out in the middle. Kohli cannot be blamed though for he has been among the team’s best batsman in this series as well and only opened for the sake of the team.
With Suresh Raina also not in the squad, it meant Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu got their chances to bat higher in the order. Rahane would be disappointed as he couldn’t capitalise on the same while Rayudu got a start but couldn’t carry on. Again, it would be unfair to criticise them too much since they haven’t got enough chances to prove themselves. It has been the likes of Dhawan and Raina, who failed consistently, and put India in such an uncomfortable position that they had to tinker with the batting order almost completely to push for a win at Hamilton.
Rohit Sharma was lucky to have retained his place in spite of being as poor as Dhawan and Raina. He repaid the faith placed in him with a patient half century. He was lucky early on when a number of his edges did not result in his dismissals, but once he got his eye in he played some dazzling strokes. In spite of being the joint top-scorer in the innings though he got out in a rather soft manner to put India back in trouble. MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja featured in a wonderful partnership to put India back on track, but India’s bowling was always going to be a worry, and so it proved to be.
Dhoni blamed India’s bowlers for the loss, but it was a rather unfair assessment of the manner in which India performed. Remember, India played the match with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Varun Aaron. Of them the first two have only just kicked off their international career while Aaron is returning from a long injury lay off. The most experienced pacer Ishant Sharma did not even find a place in the playing XI, which says something about his performances. Ravichandran Ashwin also continued to be tepid with the ball even on a responsive pitch.
India had their moments at Hamilton, but both their batting and bowling were found out.
--By A Cricket Analyst
