Gambhir leads India to easy win over New Zealand

Stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir scores century to ensure easy sailing for hosts.

JAIPUR: India’s stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cracked an unbeaten 138 off 116 balls to lift the hosts to an eight-wicket win over New Zealand in the second One-Day International (ODI).

The left-hander’s eighth one-day century enabled India to surpass New Zealand’s challenging 258 for eight with seven overs to spare in the day-night match. The emphatic victory gave India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the hosts had won the first game in Guwahati on Sunday by 40 runs.

Gambhir speeds to a ton

Gambhir put on 87 for the opening wicket with Murali Vijay (33) and 116 for the second with Virat Kohli, who followed up his century in Guwahati with a fluent 64. The captain hit 18 boundaries in his fluent knock as regular captain MS Dhoni was rested for the series.

“It was important,” said Gambhir. “Getting a century as captain is special, and winning the game was more special. I always felt the pitch was going to improve. I was looking to time the ball and it worked.”

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth set up the win by grabbing four wickets and duly received praised from the captain.

“Sreesanth has got his Test rhythm in ODI cricket as well, and he’s had two really good games this series,” said Gambhir. “New Zealand batted well and 259 was a decent total, but our bowlers did a good job to contain them.”

Black Caps struggle

Martin Guptill top-scored for the visitors with a dour 70 before Scott Styris boosted the total with 59 off 54 balls. Sreesanth removed Styris and Daniel Vettori (31) off successive balls in the 46th over after the pair had put on a quickfire 58 for the fifth wicket.

Nathan McCullum prevented a hat-trick as New Zealand recovered from a middle-order slump to smash 88 runs in the last 11 overs. Guptill, who opened the innings, crawled to his half-century in the 30th over. The Black Caps opted for the batting powerplay in the 35th over, with the total at 137 for three, and took advantage of the field restrictions to hit 33 runs in the next five overs.

Vettori was pleased with the way his side batted but rued his side’s poor bowling. “It was a good score,” said Vettori. “I was impressed with the way we batted but we bowled extremely poorly. What Gambhir played was one of the best one-day innings I’ve seen. We should have bowled better, we gave width to Gambhir all day and he made us pay for that.”

Meanwhile, Guptill fell in controversial circumstances when Indian umpire Sanjay Hazare declared him caught behind off Ravichandran Ashwin even as the wicket-keeper appealed for a stumping.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.