Six balls into India’s chase at Bay Oval, the scoreboard read 0 for 3. Rohit Sharma for 0. Virat Kohli for 0. Shreyas Iyer for 0. All three to Matt Henry, all inside the opening over.
India were bowled out for 89 chasing 334, and New Zealand won the fourth ODI in Mount Maunganui by 244 runs. India still lead the series 2-1 with one game washed out, so it goes to a decider on Sunday.
The over, ball by ball
- Ball 1: Rohit is squared up by one that bounces and seams away, and edges to first slip.
- Ball 2: Kohli is drawn forward and beaten on the outside edge by inches.
- Ball 5: Almost the same length, but this one seams back in and stays low. Kohli bowled for 0.
- Ball 6: Iyer, captaining India in an ODI for the first time, is trapped on the crease. New Zealand needed DRS, but Henry was celebrating before anyone checked.
Iyer became the first Indian batter to make a golden duck on his ODI captaincy debut. It took India 17 balls to score a single run off Henry.
Henry was not even supposed to be the story. A leg problem kept him out of most of the T20Is, and he was held back from the early ODIs on concussion grounds after running into teammate Devon Conway. He played this game mainly to prove his fitness before the Tests, and finished with 6 for 27, his first six-wicket haul in ODIs. Matt Fisher took 3 for 31, and Kyle Jamieson’s extra bounce accounted for Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Will Young’s career-best 125
Before all that, New Zealand made 333. Will Young scored 125 off 108 balls, his highest ODI score, after being dropped twice on 5. Tim Seifert hit 58 and reached fifty inside the first 10 overs, something no New Zealand batter had done since Martin Guptill in 2015. Their 85-run start was New Zealand’s first fifty-plus opening stand in eight ODIs.
India did claw something back: New Zealand lost six wickets for 77 runs over the final 13.1 overs. Axar Patel took 2 for 39, Gurnoor Brar kept attacking with the short ball, and Naman Dhir sprinted in from the boundary and dived forward to hold a superb catch. Kuldeep Yadav, playing his first game of the tour, was expensive.
India in New Zealand ODIs: results so far
| Match | Venue | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st ODI | Eden Park, Auckland | Nov 4 | India won by 5 wickets (DLS) |
| 2nd ODI | Wellington | Nov 7 | India won by 4 runs (DLS) |
| 3rd ODI | Seddon Park, Hamilton | Nov 10 | Abandoned |
| 4th ODI | Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui | Nov 13 | New Zealand won by 244 runs |
| 5th ODI | Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui | Sun, Nov 15 | 7:30am IST |
Why India should worry about the Tests
The first Test starts at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on November 18, with the second at Hagley Oval in Christchurch from November 26. Henry and Jamieson will sit out Sunday’s ODI, but India’s top order has just seen exactly what they can do with a moving ball. New Zealand need to win the decider to share the series.
More from the tour: Cricket News.