New Zealand lost the third ODI against India, which was played on Monday at Bay Oval. The Men in Blue, who are ranked second in ICC ODI Team rankings gained an unassailable lead of 3-0 in the five-match ODI series. But there was one thing that the Black Caps did well at the Bay Oval. They gave away just two wickets to the excellent wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. KulCha as they are fondly called, returned with figures of 2 for 90 in 17 overs with Kuldeep going wicketless and Chahal picking up two wickets.
KulCha scalped six wickets each in the first and second ODI of the series respectively. Senior Kiwi batsman Ross Taylor, who scored 93 off 106 in the third ODI revealed how New Zealand got better at playing the rampaging Indian wrist-spinners.
He said, “I think you just got to be patient and know they [the spinners] are going to bowl good balls,” Taylor said. “You got to take it deep. If you’re losing wickets in those first two or three overs, they go and squeeze the new batsman and then it becomes very tough. You have to acknowledge that they’re going to bowl good balls and that you can catch up later on, with wickets in hand, and that’s what we did today. I thought we did that pretty well today for most of the time, but it still wasn’t good enough.”
Winning an ODI series in New Zealand is as rare as anything. India recently registered their second ODI bilateral triumph in New Zealand under the able leadership of Virat Kohli.