The Indian batsmen, led by M.S. Dhoni's unbeaten 108, inflicted a 117-run defeat on New Zealand in their second and final warm-up match at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium here on Wednesday.
Dhoni (108), Gautam Gambhir (89), Virat Kohli (59) and Suresh Raina (50) cashed in on a flat track and some average Kiwi bowling to post 360. However, for the second match running, the Indian pacemen proved ineffective during the chase.
Brendon McCullum (58) and Martin Guptill (38) raced to 73 in 10 overs, forcing Dhoni to switch to spin. Though R. Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh proved effective, picking up wickets and also plugging the scoring rate, Dhoni will be worried about the lack of breakthroughs up front. It wasn't until the eighth Kiwi wicket fell that Dhoni recalled Ashish Nehra (40th over), but the match had been decided by then. Nehra, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel have bowled just 24.1 overs (picking up three wickets at almost seven an over) in the two practice matches — a stat that reiterates Zaheer Khan's importance to India's World Cup designs.
Falling early
After Dhoni chose to bat, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, who played only a few ODIs in the last one year, fell early. However, the batsmen who replaced them — Gambhir at No. 3 and Kohli at four — nailed the respective slots with half-centuries each.
Gambhir nudged and deflected while Kohli struck cleanly straightaway. Nathan McCullum and Jacob Oram denied the batsmen boundaries, a skill they seemingly forgot towards the end, but never threatened as Gambhir and Kohli accumulated 106 runs at a fair clip.
The New Zealand bowling, which was erratic at best, unravelled at the slightest provocation as Dhoni, who walked in at the fall of Kohli's wicket, went ballistic. The Indian skipper hit seven consecutive boundaries at one stage.
Dhoni and Raina fed off a sequence of long hops, full tosses and short balls, blasting 124 runs from 56 balls.
India: V. Sehwag b Oram 23 (30b, 4x4), S. Tendulkar b Southee 17 (23b, 3x4), G. Gambhir c How b Southee 89 (85b, 11x4), V. Kohli c B. McCullum b Oram 59 (68b, 7x4), M.S. Dhoni (not out) 108 (64b, 11x4, 3x6), S. Raina c Taylor b Mills 50 (26b, 4x4, 3x6), Y. Pathan (not out) 3 (4b); Extras (lb-4, w-7): 11; Total (for five wkts. in 50 overs): 360.
Fall of wickets: 1-35 (Tendulkar), 2-42 (Sehwag), 3-148 (Kohli), 4-216 (Gambhir), 5-340 (Raina).
New Zealand bowling: Mills 10-1-81-1, Southee 10-1-67-2, Oram 9-1-70-2, Franklin 2-0-17-0, N. McCullum 10-0-61-0, Woodcock 5-0-31-0, Styris 4-0-29-0.
New Zealand: M. Guptill c Dhoni b Ashwin 38 (45b, 4x4, 1x6), B. McCullum (run out) 58 (54b, 7x4), J. Ryder c Yuvraj b Harbhajan 32 (36b, 3x4), R. Taylor c Kohli b Harbhajan 5 (14b), J. Franklin lbw b Chawla 0 (3b), S. Styris b Chawla 20 (33b, 1x4), J. How c Munaf b Yuvraj 15 (22b, 1x4), J. Oram st. Dhoni b Yuvraj 12 (19b, 1x4), N. McCullum (not out) 29 (18b, 3x4, 2x6), L. Woodcock b Nehra 9 (9b, 1x4), K. Mills b Nehra 2 (6b); Extras (b-4, lb-8, w-11): 23; Total (in 43.1 overs): 243.
Fall of wickets: 1-94 (Guptill), 2-118 (B. McCullum), 3-140 (Taylor), 4-141 (Franklin), 5-147 (Ryder), 6-173 (How), 7-197 (Oram), 8-202 (Styris), 9-213 (Woodcock).
India bowling: Nehra 7.1-0-55-2, Sreesanth 5-0-38-0, Munaf 3-0-19-0, Ashwin 7-0-30-1, Yuvraj 9-0-33-2, Harbhajan 4-0-17-2, Chawla 8-0-39-2.
At Fatullah (Bangladesh): England 243 in 49.4 overs (J. Trott 57, M. Prior 78, K. Chohan three for 34, H. Baidwan three for 50) bt Canada 227 in 46.1 overs (R. Cheema 93, K. Chohan 44, S. Broad five for 37).
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