India vs New Zealand – ODI Series – 3rd ODI. India – 385 for 9 in 50 overs (Rohit 101, Gill 112, Hardik 54, Ferguson 0/53) beat New Zealand 295 all out in 41.2 overs (Conway 138, Thakur 3/45, Kuldeep 3/62) by 90 runs.

A flat pitch, a superfast outfield and small boundaries are a bowling sides worst nightmare. New Zealand knew what to expect when they won the toss and chose to bowl first but a 212 run opening wicket stand in 26 overs is something that nobody saw coming.

The Rohit Sharma of old would initially take his time to get set and then make up his strike rate later on. But the post 2022 T20 world cup Rohit Sharma has a go at the bowling very early. It seems like he is ready to sacrifice his wicket in an effort to get the team off to a quick start.

At the other end Shubman Gill was in the form of his life. We know he is talented. His shots always ooze class and his runs are always beautiful to watch. But his transformation into this consistent run scoring beast has been phenomenal.

The result was that both batters bought up their individual hundreds against a hapless kiwi attack. It’s been over 16 months since Rohit Sharma got an international hundred so I am sure century number 42 would have been quite special for him. Shubman Gill got to his second century of the series and in the process equaled Babar Azam’s record of most runs (360) in a 3 match series bilateral series.

Without Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi and Trent Boult the blackcaps bowling has looked very ordinary. Southee and Sodhi will be back in the future but Boult’s unavailability will start hurting New Zealand in all 3 formats. Boult is a world class operator and it will take time for someone to fill his massive boots. The good news is that Kyle Jameison has returned from injury. Maybe he or a fully fit Adam Milne might be the answer.

Dew or no dew chasing 385 is never easy. You need a quick start, a couple of century partnerships and a couple of cameos at the end to be in with a chance. New Zealand had two decent partnerships i.e. Conway & Nicholls (106 of 87 for the 2^nd wicket) and Conway & Mitchell (78 of 62 for the 3^rd wicket) but the wicket of Mitchell started a collapse and the blackcaps never recovered falling well short of the target by 90 runs. Like Bracewell in the first ODI, Devon Conway played a lone hand of 138 in a losing cause. Conway is a class act and it was only going to be a matter of time before he scored big runs in this series.

For his useful contributions with both bat and ball Shardul Thakur picked up the man of the match award. Unsurprisingly Shubman Gill picked up the man of the series award. With the win India are now are ranked no 1 in the world in ODI cricket. They are currently also ranked no 1 in T20 cricket and no 2 in Test cricket. The focus now shifts to the 3 match T20 series which starts on Friday night in India.