Pacers decided a ‘lengthy’ India vs New Zealand ODI series

Arshdeep Singh picked up three wickets in India’s win in the 5th ODI against New Zealand. | Photo Credit: AFP

India managed eke out New Zealand in the five-match ODI series, which was largely decided by who hit the lengths right consistently.

Pitching at good, hard, and shorter lengths became a key factor across the venues and India managed to out bowl New Zealand in that aspect to register a 3-1 win in the series, with third match washed out without a ball bowled.

Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar, Matt Henry, and Arshdeep Singh were adjudged Player of the Match in four ODIs, all bowling with a similar tactic of hitting the length and letting the conditions — which were mostly nippy and had extra bounce — handle the rest.

A total of 25 wickets when pacers bowled at hard and short lengths across the series. The bouncers were scarce, only 170 deliveries, and bowled to test batters’ pull shot after they were set up by barrage of hard length balls.

It wasn’t a surprise that a six-foot five inches tall Gurnoor Brar used similar lengths, picked nine wickets in three games he played and was eventually named Player of the Series.

Fast bowlers’ pitch map across the series.

In the fifth ODI at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui as well, India defended a low score of 209, bowling New Zealand out for 187. In both innings, the pacers dominated the proceedings — so much so that India didn’t introduce a spinner till the 36th over.

Captain Shreyas Iyer understood that fast bowlers were more likely to keep India in the game than spinners.

Arshdeep, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Thakur and Auqib Nabi stuck to their lengths from the word go and kept the host batters under the pump through dot balls. The ball didn’t swing much but there was certainly seam movement with the new ball.

The pace quartet hardly erred towards full or short lengths and bowled 39% on the good length and 28% on hard. All seven wickets that fell to pace came on those lengths, led by Arshdeep’s 3/30 in 10 overs.

“I feel like we kept coming back. We were very disciplined with our areas, and we didn’t let go of that thing even when we were not getting the results. But we kept bowling that and eventually got the results and yes, we won,” Arshdeep said after India’s win.

For New Zealand, Jacob Duffy played a similar role but erred slightly on the fuller side to concede more runs than he would’ve liked, finishing with 3/60 but in 8.1 overs.

It was a tough series for batters from either side. Will Young was only the centurion in four games, and the next best score was 74 by Virat Kohli in the first ODI. In total, only four 50-plus scores were made.

In a series of margins, the team that nailed its lengths consistently eventually won. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner acknowledged that and said: “You look at the scoreline 3-1. I think it was closer than that. We played some good cricket. Obviously had a little bit of rain around and lost a few tosses. But in between all that, there’s a lot of good stuff.”