Indian fans were highly chuffed by the performance of the men in blue down under. After the ‘historic’ series win in Australia, the Indian men's cricket team was on a high. Even the Hardik Pandya fracas did not faze them and they went on to win the first three ODIs against New Zealand. But they seemed to run out of steam in the fourth ODI against the Kiwis. Here’s what went down:
India were bundled out for just 93 runs in just the 31st over. Just 4 Indian batsmen reached double figures.
Trent Boult did the most damage with 5 wickets and was the most successful bowler for his team.
New Zealand made short work of the paltry score, getting to the target in the 15th over, losing just two wickets.
Yes, Yuzvendra Chahal! He is what you would call a genuine tail-ender and he comes in at No 10. The fact that his 18 was the top score for the Indian batsmen is a telling one.
So this is the ODI series progression in short. The first three matches were plain sailing for the Indian men, it all seemed to unravel in the fourth.
Some cricket fans seemed to attribute India’s disastrous performance to the absence of skipper Virat Kohli.
Kohli had to have been feeling like the lyrics of that old CSNY song, Helpless, helpless, helpless
M S Dhoni fans were very vocal about India's miserable batting show sans their idol. They felt that this would shut the mouths of those who felt that Dhoni needs to retire.
Several commentators felt that India’s performance sans the doughty duo of Dhoni and Kohli was a pale imitation of previous performances.
Rohit Sharma was stand-in captain in the absence of Kohli. He felt that this was ‘one of the worst’ Indian performances. One could thank him politely for stating the obvious, or one could just say Duh!
There were of course many commentators hypothesizing about Dhoni and Kohli’s reaction to the match.
Hardik Pandya did not cover himself with glory while batting, making precisely 16 runs in the match. He did, however, redeem himself by taking the catch of Martin Guptill who was on a rampage, having scored 14 off 3 balls (two boundaries and a six)
Using the now-popular Luka Chuppi meme this commentator expressed the emotion that many viewers felt while watching India's batting during the 4th ODI against New Zealand – WTF is going on!!
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