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India holds the whip hand; must-win game for Kiwis

S. Ram Mahesh

Well-oiled Indian batting unit and promising New Zealand line-up make for a good contest

— Photo: AFP

BOWLERS’ NIGHTMARE: Virender Sehwag hones his skills at terrorising the opposition.

Christchurch: The weather has been befuddling this tour, so one may as well get it out of the way early.

Contrary to forecasts that suggested Christchurch might consider building an ark and assembling two of every species, Saturday afternoon found the green, leafy city particularly sunny. A stiff, drying nor-westerly blew sufficiently strongly to force aircrafts to change course before landing.

This, however, is no guarantee of how Sunday will turn out. Both at Napier and at Wellington, the days preceding the One-Day Internationals were magnificent, fit for sport and leisure of the best kind. But what followed was cold, wet weather that curtailed the first game and washed out the second.

A drizzly encore in the third ODI, here at the eccentric AMI Stadium on Sunday, will be extremely unpopular.

Effective lead

India nurses a 1-0 lead in what is now effectively a four-match series. M.S. Dhoni’s side holds the whip hand, for another victory will ensure the series can’t be lost. New Zealand — outplayed in the first game, and under severe pressure in the second before the rain came — understands the urgency of the situation.

“After the rained-out game we’ve got to win, Dans (Vettori) told us it’s a must-win game,” said Ross Taylor, New Zealand’s best batsman.

“We’ve been in the situation before with the West Indies, and we’ve come out winning the must-win games, so hopefully the pressure we can put ourselves under will work in our favour.”

A noble ambition, no doubt, but not the easiest to fulfil. India appears to have regained the momentum it surrendered one wasteful night here, when heads and wickets were lost in imprudent stabs at breaching the undersized boundary at the AMI Stadium.

Virender Sehwag decreed that he needed to spend longer in the middle: he promptly made two lacerating half-centuries that disorganised New Zealand’s seam bowling in the ODIs.

Wow factor

“There’s a bit of a wow factor watching him,” conceded Taylor. “He’s been batting really well, but as a batsman you can’t score runs all the time, so some of his luck can run out tomorrow (Sunday).”

New Zealand’s plans to Sehwag (who appears to have recovered from whatever was troubling his left leg on Friday) include bowling tighter lines and fuller lengths. But as the opener showed in Wellington, playing the full stroke to great effect, he can adapt and compel change. Besides Sehwag isn’t the only Indian batsman New Zealand is chary of.

The rained-out game on Friday allowed Sachin Tendulkar to find his touch; Dhoni himself has logged considerable time in the middle; Gautam Gambhir got a hit in Wellington, batting at three in the latest edition of India’s Flexi Batting Order policy; Suresh Raina has proved his worth, both as a builder of innings and a destroyer of sub-standard bowling.

“It does a bit initially when you go in to bat,” said Raina, explaining his approach. “You have to hang in there for a while, not just go out and play your shots. You have to select the bowler, read the circumstances, understand your areas, and sort your game plan. You have to know your game better than the opposition.”

Raina said the batting unit had prepared extensively for the assignment, quizzing those that have been here, and practising in real-time conditions. The requisite mental adjustment appears to have been made as well.

Promising line-up

On the other hand, New Zealand’s batting — which undoubtedly contains promise — seems to have slid slightly.

The only evidence after the Twenty20 games is the innings at Napier, and that was conducted in circumstances not suited to batting. Perhaps it’s no more than the inconsistency inevitable with an inexperienced batting line-up, accentuated when Brendon McCullum failed.

And perhaps it will be a different matter if New Zealand bats first. Curiously, all four games — the two Twenty20 Internationals and the two ODIs — have had India setting a target.

New Zealand has said it would like to unsettle the established pattern and challenge India’s chasing acumen if it wins the toss, and that’s something to look forward to.

As will the possible onset of reverse swing, if the ball is scarred in its frequent visits to the unfinished stands that loom over the short boundary.

Now if only the weather would hold.

The teams (from):

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Jacob Oram, Peter McGlashan (wk), Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Ian Butler, and Tim Southee.

India: M.S. Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, and Dinesh Karthik.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter; Third umpire: Evan Watkin; Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle.

Hours of play (IST): 6.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 10.45 a.m. till end of play.

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