India lost ODI series at home to New Zealand for the first time, Kohli’s century did not work

New Zealand has again broken into the Indian team’s house. After defeating Team India in the 3-match Test series a year and a quarter ago, the Kiwi team has also won the ODI series on Indian soil. New Zealand has won the series 2-1 by defeating India by 41 runs in the third and decisive ODI played in Indore. This is their first ODI series win on Indian soil.

When invited to bat first, the Kiwi team scored 337 runs at the loss of 8 wickets. Daryl Mitchell (137 runs in 131 balls) and Glenn Phillips (106 runs in 88 balls) played century innings, helping New Zealand recover from a poor start and set a huge target for India. In reply, the Indian team also had a bad start.

Team India lost 4 wickets for 71 runs. Virat Kohli fought hard with the lower order but his hard work went in vain. India’s entire innings was reduced to 296 runs only. Kohli scored 124 runs in 108 balls. During this period, 10 fours and 3 sixes came from his bat. He was out as the 9th wicket.

Also read: Chase master Kohli left Ponting-Sehwag behind by scoring a century in Indore ODI.

Kohli-Harshit had raised hopes

Virat Kohli along with Nitish Kumar Reddy made a partnership of 88 runs for the fifth wicket and rescued India from the initial shock. Nitish Reddy became the victim of Christian Clarke after scoring 53 runs in 57 balls. After his departure, Ravindra Jadeja (12) also quickly returned to the pavilion. It seemed that the Indian team’s innings would collapse by the time it reached 200-225 runs, but Kohli and Harshit Rana raised hopes of victory by making a partnership of 99 runs in 69 balls for the seventh wicket.

Also read: What is Team India’s most successful run chase in ODI?

In Indore, it seemed that Kohli and Harshit would give a miraculous victory but Jack Faulks dashed the hopes by walking Harshit (52 runs in 43 balls). After Harshit’s dismissal, Kohli only wanted to hit boundaries because Kuldeep was standing at the other end. He hit two fours on the first two balls of the 46th over and brought the target to 46 runs in 28 balls. On the fourth ball of this over, he again tried a big shot but this time he could not clear the long off and with this India’s defeat was ensured.