An economy of five in List A cricket on small New Zealand grounds having made him the ideal replacement for Mitchell Santner, Jayden Lennox gave a good account of himself on debut, returning 42/1 in his full quota. He rarely overpitched in his first spell, rendered India claustrophobic in the middle overs, and went on to be a skinflint at the death as well. He couldn’t have asked for a better pitch on international bow, for the slow pace and variable bounce saw India wait 62 balls for a boundary around the halfway mark. Even the rubbish long hop that each newbie is destined to serve, sooner than later, escaped punishment as KL Rahul miscued the pull despite having more time than a professional bed rotter. Albeit India’s designated crisis man had the toolkit to guide his team to a par score after a triple whammy from Kristian Clarke.
Post an unbeaten 29 chasing 301 in Vadodara, Rahul told the broadcaster that as long as his name is on the team sheet he is happy to do whatever the team needs. There wasn’t an element of truth in that statement, but a whole chunky mass of it. An emergency opener, an anchor, a floater, a wicketkeeper and a stand-in captain – Rahul is the epitome of versatility across formats. India required him to channel every ounce of that adaptiveness in Rajkot, where chasing sides had won all four ODIs hitherto and New Zealand were in pole position to ride the trend. A couple of poor shots and soft dismissals apiece left the hosts at 118/4 smack dab in the middle of the innings, with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s march bookended by dots. Enter the equanimous Rahul, pitted against the twofold challenge of an up-and-down surface and an attack acing subcontinental conditions in the absence of spearheads. He scored a century off 87 balls, a garland of graceful shots threaded by proactivity.
He reached the pitch of the ball to slam Glenn Phillips through cover, giving himself a bit of room in the process in order to free the arms. As Michael Bracewell reduced his speed to 77kmph to trouble Ravindra Jadeja at his home ground, umpire Richard Illingworth had a word with the Kiwi captain about mid-on’s attempt to scuff the ball further by throwing it on the adjacent strip. One warning was more than enough for the nice blokes of cricket to cease the gamesmanship but the off-spinner outed his positive match-up anyway, the grip and bite inducing a return catch. Thankfully for India, Rahul was in his groove by then with Zakary Foulkes and Lennox proving to be first-hand witnesses of his snappy bat-swing. Soon came the stroke of the day, a silky smooth cover drive off Kyle Jamieson whose opening burst gave the impression that the fixture was taking place on a green mamba in Wellington instead of in the heart of Saurashtra.
There were three men on the leg side and protection at sweeper cover. India were aiming to put pressure early in the over, as denoted by the advancing blow in the previous over, but on this occasion Rahul ditched the funky in favour of the elegant. On the rise, he milked the ball in the gap and up went the Gujaratis in the crowd, delirious at watching one of the sweetest strikers of the modern game in full flow. It would be a travesty to label the reverse sweep as unconventional in the present day and age, but if we abide by the lexicon Rahul was equally adept at shunning orthodoxy. The broom was brought out against Bracewell, demonstrating the range that has ushered his average to 77.2 against spin in 37 ODI knocks since 2023 at a strike rate of almost 90.
Dew is non-existent in this part of the world so Rahul’s job was only half done. He was running out of partners too, with Nitish Reddy having flattered to deceive. Call it poetic justice, but as a reward for his application so far, Rahul proved to be the beneficiary of New Zealand’s benevolence in the slog overs. Jamieson missed a tramline yorker and added to the generosity with another freebie as India fetched 85 runs from the last ten overs. 2025 onwards the record for the most ODI runs in overs 41-50 belongs to Rahul with an aggregate of 283. ‘’On these kind of wickets, as soon as you have a partnership, the set batsman has to make it big because it’s not easy for the batsman coming in to score freely. In the end, we did get a decent target on the board,’’ skipper Shubman Gill remarked.
286 is the highest target successfully chased by New Zealand in India, eclipsing their pursuit of 283 against England in Ahmedabad in the curtain raiser of the 2023 ODI World Cup. ‘’We bowled exceptionally well in the first 10 overs but couldn’t pick up any wickets in the middle overs. With five fielders in, if you don’t keep taking wickets in the middle overs, it becomes very difficult even if we would have added 15-20 more runs,’’ Gill added. While India managed 142/5 in overs 11-40, New Zealand had a plain sailing journey with an yield of 193/2.
Daryl Mitchell and Will Young were particularly severe on Kuldeep Yadav, India’s trusted wrecker-in-chief in the middle phase. He gave away 82 runs alone whereas India were able to accumulate just 89 from the 23 overs shared between Bracewell, Lennox and Phillips. It could’ve been a different story had Gill kicked on, for he was looking in sublime touch facing the quicks, hitting eight boundaries and a six on his way to fifty. A major caveat is that unlike the first dig, the pitch eased out under lights as hoped by Bracewell at the toss. The coin will be spun for the final time in this series in Indore, and the featherbed at Holkar Stadium is likely to afford Rahul, India’s rock at number five, some well-earned rest.
