Rohit Sharma lost his tenth consecutive toss in ODIs when the coin landed in favour of New Zealand in Dubai. Brian Lara and Peter Borren are the only other captains to have endured an even unluckier streak in the format. Although Mitchell Santner’s decision to bowl first did act as a soothing balm, for the Indian captain wanted to test the defensive preparedness of his side going into the Champions Trophy knockouts.
The venue is notorious for its chasing bias in night games in T20s and India too had hunted down tamable targets in their campaign so far. It was imperative that the finalists of the 2023 ODI World Cup experience the flipside and gain empirical knowledge about it should such a situation present itself in the eliminator. Right on cue, the way the game panned out handed India an opportunity to evaluate their middle order’s adaptability as well as the wherewithal to bowl under lights against an opposition that held the psychological edge over them.
Nudging his length up after starting on the shorter side, the ever-reliable Matt Henry bucked the trend of going wicketless in the PowerPlay in this tournament as New Zealand fashioned only the second instance – among 29 occasions – where India’s top-three of Rohit, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli fell in the first ten overs of an ODI. Higher release points have caused the ball to stick in the surface in Dubai, and Henry being the skiddier of the lot figured out that he must recalibrate his length after his into-the-pitch deliveries sat up nicely for Rohit, a virtuoso of the pull shot. The returning Kyle Jamieson found the cue end of his bat despite pitching the ball in an identical spot as India, knee deep in trouble at 30/3, promoted Axar Patel to number five, an experiment that is fast becoming a status quo given head coach Gautam Gambhir’s affinity for left-right combinations.
As India steadied themselves William O’Rourke nearly bowled an ideal follow-up spell, bowling into Axar’s body to concede just 6 runs in his 3 overs upfront, before Shreyas Iyer threw down the gauntlet. He knew India cannot afford to let the third seamer escape economically because New Zealand had four spinners at their disposal on a cooperative track. Averaging 38 playing the pull in between 2023-25 as compared to the worrisome 12 in 2017-22, Iyer peppered the mid-wicket fence and executed a gorgeous lofted cover drive to provide India a timely boost ahead of a 51-ball boundary-less sequence.
While the left-arm orthodox pair of Santner and Rachin Ravindra combined for 72/2 in their 16 overs, the 11-40 period ought to have drilled into India’s psyche how crucial it is to pick their options in the spin-friendly conditions of Dubai. First and foremost, don’t spare pace. Secondly, if a tweaker is having a bad day, try and worsen it as much as possible as a batting unit. Michael Bracewell struggled to control his lengths from the word go, the problem exacerbated by the fact that his dragdowns, regardless of the flatter trajectory, were guaranteed to be feasted upon due to the slow nature of the deck. Both Iyer and Axar made it a point to rock back at the slightest invitation and activate their cutting and pulling modes to add 98 runs off 136 balls.
Field placements were an integral feature of the cat and mouse game underway in the middle phase. New Zealand had six men in the ring for KL Rahul, who admitted that rotating the strike promptly has been a challenge in this ICC event. ‘’Once those dot balls start to pile up on a batsman, obviously the pressure builds up and you have to play that big shot, and that obviously gives the opposition and the bowlers an opportunity.’’ he pinpointed.
Having faced seven dots in a row, Rahul put his dancing shoes on to clear mid-on versus Ravindra. Similarly, India were able to build enough pressure on Daryl Mitchell to eke out an adventurous stroke, albeit he was fortunate the miscue didn’t carry to sweeper cover. The takeaway for Rohit from these mini-strangleholds would be that they also need to be bold at times to bring long-or or long-off inside the circle and urge the batter to take the aerial route, something the Kiwi livewires did rather spectacularly to bookend the Indian innings with wonder grabs.
More morsels of information awaited India as they were introduced to the rigours of bowling second in Dubai. Since India rested Harshit Rana to offer Varun Chakravarthy game-time, Hardik Pandya took the new ball along with Mohammad Shami. In a bid to cut off convenient singles, Rohit stationed himself at gully for the dab but when Will Young swivelled on the pull it came to India’s consciousness that deep square leg is key to Hardik’s run-saving playbook since the short-ball is his go-to weapon. This template of India fielding a specialist seamer, a seaming all-rounder and four spinners and thereby Hardik getting frontloaded may well be persisted with against Australia considering the immediate impact made by Varun Chakravarthy.
He overpitched to begin with and Kane Williamson drove the half-volley down the ground for a boundary. It served as a rude wake-up call. There is little room for sighters in international cricket, particularly in the second innings when all involved have had a good look at the surface and understand its behaviour. Varun pulled his length back instantaneously and asked the Blackcaps to come half-forward, a dangerous interception point against spin which becomes doubly devilish when you’re throwing up mystery spin. Four of his five dismissals were either bowled or lbw, revealing an effort to keep the stumps in play. In fact, the poetic justice that transpired in the form of Williamson’s stumping on the ultimate ball of Axar’s hitherto wicketless quota was also possible because the well-set anchor was denied the space to free his arms, apart from the noticeable drop in pace.
No speed variation throughout the clash, however, can pip on the shock value meter Varun’s seam-up seed to Santner, whose breezy exploits at the death might have come across as an incomprehensible visual to Mitchell. The late flourish from the southpaw also accentuated the thought whether Tom Latham could’ve been promoted to complexify the task for the Indian spinners in the first half of the innings as they eventually returned nine wickets in an aggregate of 37.3 overs. The quartet was up against an experienced campaigner in Williamson making the reprieve on 17 count, absorbing the pressure and threatening to take the game deep, but they stuck to their guns to confirm a meeting with Australia. There are some scores to be settled, after all.
