India and New Zealand clashed against each other in the 2nd ODI on Saturday at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur. This is the 50th venue to host an ODI in India, it has huge boundaries on all sides of the ground. The pitch itself has an even covering of grass and there are some cracks on it.
India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first and it wasn’t the first half anyone expected. Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami hit their straps from the get-go, slicing through the Blackcaps’ top and middle order, reducing the visitors to 15/5 at one stage. The wicket wasn’t unplayable by any means, and the Kiwis were guilty of some loose shots as well. Former Indian fast bowler Irfan Pathan took a dig at New Zealand batters who were struggling and couldn’t produce a fighting total for the Men in Blue.
Pathan took to Twitter and trolled the New Zealand batters as he wrote, “Modern day batters ke samne thoda ball hila or Garba chalu.”
Run-fest in the first ODI match
All the credit goes to the Indian bowlers who all chipped in with regular wickets. Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur ensured that the pressure wasn’t reduced, while Kuldeep got one to his name as well. Phillips, Bracewell, and Santner were the only batters to get starts, but they just couldn’t handle the pressure for long enough to get their side out of choppy waters.
Talking about the first ODI, it was runs galore in Hyderabad with Michael Bracewell nearly threatening to upstage Shubham Gill’s double hundred. Having had the visitors on the rocks, India were given a reality check by Bracewell as the left-hander nearly pulled off a remarkable victory. A double hundred, a hundred, and a fifty were scored. A total of 686 runs were scored in the match and the bowlers were in a hiding for nothing, except Siraj, who registered back-to-back 4-wicket hauls. India are looking for a series win, while the visitors will hope to keep the series alive.
