Dare to Believe

There are unlikely to be many people who saw this coming.  After being battered around throughout the test series, New Zealand then went on to be beaten in the first ODI with over 100 balls to spare.

Lessons learnt didn’t seem to be getting learnt at all and that plane home couldn’t come fast enough.

They had now won an ODI in India for 13 years, and the last tour there in 2010 was a complete disaster.

But this week has seen two wins of three and they now have a decider which could see them becoming the first New Zealand team to win an ODI series in India

They have even now won a toss.

So all are eyes are now on Visakhapatnam.  It may take concentration to pronounce but if New Zealand was to achieve an extremely unlikely series win then Visakhapatnam will find itself in a corner of New Zealand folklore.

There are still obstacles in the way though.

Not Quite 2015 Cricket World Cup yet

But Tim Southee is having a useful series.

The New Zealand Middle Order

Often New Zealand sides rely on the middle order to rescue a poor start, but it’s been the other way around here.  Often the starts have been good, and Latham has only been bettered by Kohli, but then the brakes have come on.

Taylor has made some runs, but at a strike rate of 63, which has put pressure on others.  Ronchi lost all that momentum he had in the test series in a hurry, and CJ Anderson is not a specialist ODI batsman; especially after a long lay-off.

Devcich batting at 8 is way out of position and Watling looked like he was batting in his first ODI for a 3 ½ years.

The balance of the side was better in the last ODI though.  You really do need six bowlers in an ODI, and that Guptill over in the second, while important, was a bit of a bonus.

Kedar Jadhav

Jadhav has one first class wicket (at 153) and doesn’t seem to do anything with the ball, yet he has been the most economical bowler in this series and his six wickets at just over 12.  And they’ve been big wickets too.  It was one thing for these top batsmen to get out to him early on, but in the last ODI they played him out carefully.

Surely the video analysts are working overtime here.

The New Zealand batsmen have also struggled against Mishra, but that is a lot more understandable.

Virat Kohli

The power is within you. If you believe, you can do anything. More power to all. Have a great day people #BeHappy #BlessAll pic.twitter.com/H0DAdcUH94

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 28, 2016

Enough said..

History

There is the fact this would be unprecedented mentioned above.  And what happened in the last deciding ODI New Zealand played in?

You may think it was the World Cup Final, but it was actually this.