India vs New Zealand, 2017: 2nd ODI summary
After losing the first ODI against New Zealand in Mumbai, India bounced back in Pune and defeated the visitors convincingly by a margin of six wickets to square the series at 1-1.
1st Innings
Winning the toss, the Kiwi captain Kane Williamson elected to bat first. Openers Martin Guptil and Colin Munro started steadily but just as they started to get aggressive, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Guptil out in the third over.
At a run rate of 3.5 runs per over, the visitors scored 35 runs with the loss of three key wickets - Guptil, Williamson and Munro.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli surprisingly handed the ball to Kedar Jadhav in the 11th over when the two Kiwi stars from the last match, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham, were at the crease.
In the last ball of the 16th over, Hardik Pandya trapped Taylor in a short ball and caught him behind the stumps. Following that, the NZ innings slowed down and never looked like it would bounce back. Latham and Henry Nicholls tried to build a partnership, but Latham fell prematurely to Axar Patel.
In the 38th over, Bhuvneshwar dismissed Nicholls for 42 runs. The NZ lower order batsmen showed some character and added 62 runs in the last ten overs, ending with a total of 230 runs with the loss of nine wickets.
Best batsman of NZ: Henry Nicholls, 42(62)
Best bowler of India: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 3-45
2nd Innings
Starting off with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, India also got to a steady start, scoring 17 runs in the first four overs. Sharma once again failed to score big and fell to Tim Southee, having scored only seven runs. Kohli started his innings from where he left off in Mumbai, and both batsmen scored quickly to get to 64 runs at the end of ten overs.
In the 14th over, trying to play a square drive to the outside of an off-stump ball bowled by Colin de Grandhomme, Kohli got caught behind the stumps.
In came Dinesh Karthik at number four. He started his innings with a boundary, and Dhawan and Karthik built a match-winning partnership. Dhawan reached his 50-run mark in the 23rd over.
Of the two, Dhawan was more aggressive while Karthik anchored the innings. Dhawan finally succumbed to Adam Milne at a score of 68, and this presented the Kiwis with an opportunity to get back into the game. In the 40th over, Karthik got to his half-century with a boundary.
When the time came to finish off the match, Pandya tried to play a sweep shot and got dismissed at a score of 30 runs.
The stadium erupted as MS Dhoni came in to bat next. True to character, MSD went about his business and led India to a convincing defeat of the visitors by six wickets, and with four overs to spare.
They levelled the three-match ODI series with one win apiece,
Best batsman of India: Shikhar Dhawan, 68(84)
Best bowler of NZ: Adam Milne, 1-21
Man of the Match: Bhuvneshwar Kumar