With a magnificent double ton of the young Indian opening batsman Shubman Gill, team India secured their first win in the series with a 1-0 lead. Opted to bat first, India reached a score of 349 in 50 overs with a loss of 8 wickets. While chasing the target, New Zealand lose all of their wickets in 49.2 overs and reached a score of 337.
An outstanding game was showcased by team India in the match as Indian openers took the game to the next level. It was quite a well start for India as Gill scored a double-hundred to single-handedly take his team over 300 runs. The game was really a Gill show. When others struggled in the game, Gill put on a show and entertained everyone. With his amazing strike, Gill became the youngest double-centurion in ODIs.
Rohit Sharma built an opening stand with Gill but ended up in 34 runs which included 4 boundaries and 2 sixes. After Rohit, Virat Kohli joined the side. Everyone expected another blast from Kohli after his last fireworks of an unbeaten 166. But nothing happened as he has gone out in 8.
Ishan Kishan also didn’t contribute much. Later Suryakumar Yadav (31 off 26) and Hardik Pandya (28 off 38) made a threatening stand. New Zealand kept pocketing wickets regularly but Gill managed to keep taking runs with his back-foot punch, extra-cover drive, and dismissive pulls. Even though Gill and Rohit have given the side a quick start, Santner started to string tight overs, wickets began to fall.
In 13 overs, New Zealand just conceded 93 runs. But then Gill launched his biggest assault by scoring 39 off his last 12 balls. He stopped waiting for hittable balls and looked to hit everything out of the ground. He has given a hat-trick of sixes off Ferguson’s overs in the 49th over. The Glenn Phillips produced a special catch to get rid of Gill who has already collected 19 fours and nine sixes.
India’s 349 for 8 has become the lowest score in any ODI innings to feature a double-century.
In return, New Zealand started chasing slowly and that didn’t really help them. Finn Allen and Devon Conway started well and Allen has got 40 runs. But Conway went out in the 6th over itself. Then we saw a loss of wickets at regular intervals. When the Kiwis are on a 6-wicket loss, Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner came to rescue the side. An amazing stroke was shown by Bracewell as he scored 140 of 78 runs. Santner also scored a half-century (57 of 45).
New Zealand was dead and buried at 131 for 6, but the effort of Bracewell should be appreciated to give hope to the side. He single-handedly kept Kiwis in the game. He was striking at all parts and it looked like he may take his team home a win. But the chase turned out to be too long. He has played a gem of an inning but went out in vain in the end.
India’s bowling was a bit ordinary in the game. Only Mohammed Siraj looked powerful in the side with a 4-wicket haul. India looked settled when New Zealand were 5 wickets down. But then came the ton of Bracewell. The bowlers failed to execute some plans when Bracewell and Santner started chasing runs in the final overs.
Siraj focused more on his outswingers with the new ball in the beginning and later went wobble-seam tricks in the third over. Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur also picked 2-wickets each while Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami earned one each.
India won the match to make it a 1-0 lead but take a moment to applaud the performance of Michael Bracewell.
