India were bowled out for 89 in a 244-run defeat to New Zealand in the fourth ODI at Mount Maunganui on Friday, and head coach Gautam Gambhir called the batting failures a major concern while rejecting the view that the deliveries were unplayable.
New Zealand posted 333 in their 50 overs, and India folded in 26.4 overs, their second-biggest defeat by runs in ODI cricket.
India hold a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, and the fifth and final ODI at the same venue on Sunday will decide it. New Zealand’s win kept them in contention to level the series.
Matt Henry did the damage with 6-27 from 9.4 overs. He removed Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer for ducks in the first over of the chase, and India were 9/4 once Kyle Jamieson dismissed Ruturaj Gaikwad. India were three down without a run on the board and never recovered. Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel and Naman Dhir made scores in the 20s.
Will Young scored 125 for New Zealand after being dropped twice early on. Gambhir said the dropped catches cost his side.
“There are no unplayable deliveries in international cricket. We needed to see off the first 10 overs. Matt Henry bowled in good areas, but we should be able to negate that,” Gambhir said at the post-match press conference.
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He said the pattern worried him more than the final score. “Even in the last game, we were 7 down for 111; it is a bit of a concern. We need to be mentally and skill-wise ready. 35-40/0 is fine in conditions like these,” he added.
The collapse followed a similar one in the second ODI in Wellington, where India slipped to 111 for seven chasing a revised target of 135 in a rain-affected match and won by four runs on DLS.
Stand-in captain Shreyas Iyer pointed to the difference in the pitch between the two innings. “There was a huge difference in the wickets between innings,” Iyer said at the post-match presentation.
Gambhir did not accept that reading and asked his batters to show greater patience at the start of the chase. He said they were not making decisive movements against balls that moved away, and were getting stuck in the crease rather than committing forward or back.
The defeat sharpened questions about the senior pair. Rohit’s three innings this series have brought 0, 23 and 0. Kohli’s 74 in the opening match remains the only Indian half-century of the series. Both are expected to play important roles in India’s 2027 ODI World Cup campaign.
Gambhir had fewer complaints about the bowling and said the fielding let the side down, with dropped catches proving costly as New Zealand built their total.
With the 2027 ODI World Cup less than a year away, Gambhir said the New Zealand conditions were close to what India might face at the World Cup, and that his batters needed to learn to deal with such conditions rather than blame the surface. India will look to put the defeat behind them in the final ODI on Sunday.