January 25, 2014
Brief Scorecard: New Zealand 314 (Guptill 111, Williamson 65) tied with India 314 for 9 (Jadeja 66*, Ashwin 65, Dhoni 50, Anderson 5-63)
Ravindra Jadeja slaps the ball over third man, New Zealand v India, 3rd ODI, Auckland, January 25, 2014
January 25, 2014
Brief Scorecard: New Zealand 314 (Guptill 111, Williamson 65) tied with India 314 for 9 (Jadeja 66*, Ashwin 65, Dhoni 50, Anderson 5-63)
Ravindra Jadeja slaps the ball over third man, New Zealand v India, 3rd ODI, Auckland, January 25, 2014
AUCKLAND: Ravindra Jadeja hit a 45-ball 66 to help India tie the third one-day international against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
Ravichandran Ashwin hit a 46-ball 65 before Martin Guptill's brilliant presence of mind resulted in his dismissal.
Ashwin hit a Nathan McCullum delivery to deep mid-wicket where Guptill took the catch but just when his momentum was about to take him over the boundary, he tossed the ball back in, took a step over the boundary and then came back in to complete the catch.
Ashwin's knock was studded with a six and eight fours.
Ashwin hit his maiden ODI fifty off just 35 balls to give India some hope of victory.
Indian captain MS Dhoni hit his 53rd ODI fifty before Corey Anderson had him caught by Tim Southee.
India lost their fifth wicket when Tim Southee had Suresh Raina caught behind by Luke Ronchi.
Raina (31) went for a miscued pull shot to a shorter delivery wide outside off but ended up under edging it to the keeper.
Corey Anderson took his third wicket when he had Ajinkya Rahane caught behind by Ronchi.
Anderson hurled a length ball down the leg side and Rahane (3) tried to tickle it down to fine leg but it took a faint edge and went into Ronchi's gloves.
Hamish Bennett gave New Zealand a massive breakthrough when he had Virat Kohli caught behind by Ronchi.
Kohli (6) tried to drive it off his front foot but missed and got a faint edge that was safely pouched by the keeper.
Corey Anderson took his second wicket when he had Rohit Sharma caught by Hamish Bennett at third man.
Sharma hit four sixes and a four in his 38-ball 39 before falling to Anderson.
Martin Guptill took a good diving catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Shikhar Dhawan off Anderson.
Dhawan hit a six and four fours in his 25-ball 28 before falling to Anderson.
Chasing a 315-run victory target, openers Rohit Sharma and Dhawan brought up the Indian fifty in 7.4 overs.
Sharma brought up the Indian fifty with an elegant six over long-on off Hamish Bennett.
Earlier, Martin Guptill's magnificent century, Kane Williamson's 74-ball 65 and Luke Ronchi's 20-ball 38 powered New Zealand to 314.
The wicket is flat, outfield fast and dimension of the ground very short. India too have a batting line-up which is capable enough to overhaul this target. All they need is a good start and some consistent batting from their main batsmen.
India clawed their way back towards the end with some tight bowling and apart from stopping the runs they took wickets as well. The comeback from them was so brilliant that at one stage it seemed that New Zealand will not even touch the 300-run mark.
But then Ronchi and Tim Southee emerged on the scene and courtesy their onslaught, the Kiwis finished with a very competitive total.
Southee, who hit three sixes and a four in his 23-ball 27, took New Zealand over the 300-run mark in the penultimate over before getting run out on the last ball of the innings.
Southee's knock came after New Zealand looked in danger of getting bowled out in less than 50 overs as they lost three wickets in two overs.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum fell for a duck as he was caught by Ravichandran Ashwin off Varun Aaron.
Rahane then ran out Ross Taylor with a direct hit from mid-off to place New Zealand at 270/6.
Nathan McCullum was also run out in the 44th over and in the next over Ajinkya Rahane took a good catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Luke Ronchi off Ravindra Jadeja. Ronchi smashed three sixes and three fours in his 20-ball 38.
Mohammed Shami then had Mitchell McClenaghan caught by Ravindra Jadeja at square leg to reduce New Zealand to 288/9.
Rahane took a good catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss centurion Martin Guptill off Jadeja.
Guptill hit 2 sixes and 12 fours in his 129-ball 111 before falling to Jadeja.
Guptill's fifth ODI ton, his first against India came off 123 balls as New Zealand crossed the 200-run mark in the 34th over.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum then fell for a duck as he was caught by Ravichandran Ashwin off Varun Aaron.
Shami and Ashwin dismissed Kane Williamson and Corey Anderson respectively in successive overs.
Williamson hit a six and 4 fours in his 74-ball 65 before he was clean biowled by Shami.
Anderson hit one six in his 5-ball 8 before he was castled by Ashwin.
Martin Guptill and Williamson hit half-centuries to build a solid platform for a formidable total.
The partnership between Guptill and Williamson came after Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck in the fifth over to give India an early breakthrough.
Bhuvneshwar clean bowled Jesse Ryder (20) to reduce New Zealand to 36/1 in 4.2 overs, after the hosts started their innings aggressively. Ryder slammed four boundaries in his 12-ball short stay at the crease.
Earlier, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to field against the hosts.
India made one change from the playing eleven of the second ODI with Varun Aaron replacing out-of-form pacer Ishant Sharma.
New Zealand also made one change with pacer Hamish Bennett coming in for Kyle Mills.
Dhoni's men lost the first ODI at Napier by 24 runs and then went down in the second one-dayer by 15 runs (D/L method) at Hamilton.
Teams:
India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron.
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (Capt.), Corey Anderson, Martin Guptill, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Hamish Bennett, Luke Ronchi.
Courtesy: PTI
