India continued its dominance, defeating New Zealand with eight wickets and seven overs to spare. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 had put New Zealand into bat after winning the toss. The bowlers did a good job restricting the Kiwis to 258 runs in their
allotted overs. There were a couple of good performances from the New Zealand batting side but at the end of the day they were not good enough to halt India from a win.
Gautam Ghambhir, the acting Captain had put http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 into bat as he had suspected the dew might come in play while bowling in the second innings. The Kiwis started off well with their opener Martin Guptil scoring a half century.
The first wicket fell early but after that there were some starts from the Kiwi batsmen which helped them manage a couple of partnerships. Even though the batsmen got starts, they were losing wickets at regular intervals and the disciplined bowling from India
didn’t allow them to get runs at a good pace.
At one stage the Kiwis were 96-3 when the veteran all-rounder Scott Styris walked in. Styris along with Martin Guptil built a partnership of 65 runs before Guptil got out to Aswin. With the departure of Guptil, the Kiwi Captain
Daniel Vettori walked in and he and Styris scored some good runs at a regular pace. Things were looking a bit better for New Zealand when these two were batting but it was Sreesanth who came back into the attack to get rid of Styris and Vettori in the same
over. Because of some good bowling performances by the Indians on a slow and low wicket, New Zealand were restricted to 258-8 at the end of their innings. The Indian pacer Sreesanth was the pick of the bowlers claiming four wickets for 47 runs. Munaf Patel
and Ashwin also backed him up by restricting the Kiwi team to a modest total.
In reply to the Kiwi total of 258, the Indians started off very well with openers Gautam Ghambir and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Murali-Vijay-c78035 scoring quickly. Vettori came into the attack to remove Vijay for 33 runs but not before providing a solid platform
for the batsmen to come. It was all about runs after that, Gautam Ghambir and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 had no problems at all in playing the Kiwi attack and Ghambir played exceptionally well for his brilliant century. Mckay removed Kohli for 64 but it was too late for
the Kiwis to get back in the match. Ghambir and Kohli racked up a partnership of 116 runs and guaranteed a victory for India. Yuvraj Singh walked in to help India complete the triumph with 42 balls to spare and eight wickets remaining.
The Kiwi bowlers were all at sea. The fast bowlers were hit all over the places and were not able to provide breakthroughs for their team. The spinners did a better job with Vettori picking up one wicket. Nathan Mcullum was economical
but was unable to pick up wickets which would have mattered at the end of the day.
To sum up, it was India who dominated the Kiwis yet again. Firstly, the bowlers did a good job by restricting the Kiwis and then it was the excellence of Ghambir and Kohli which guided them to victory. For the Kiwis, there were
some good performances here and there but not one which could win them a match. The Kiwi team has had a bad run in the past few months on Asian soil which can be alarming for them as the 2011World Cup will be played in Asia. If they go on to lose any other
match, it will be another series lost. They are already two down in the five match series and if India wins another match, they take the series.
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