India Wins 2nd ODI Against NZ by 8 Wickets

After coming under a severe assualt at the back-end of the New Zealand chase in the first ODI, the Indian bowlers unleashed their fury to skittle out the visitors for 108 in the second ODI at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur, on Saturday.

The Indian new ball bowlers ran riot on a pitch that had decent grass cover, making use of the favourable bowling conditions on offer.

Mohammad Shami was the wreaker-in-chief, scalping three wickets. Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar picked two wickets each. While Siraj, Kuldeep and Shardul took one wicket each.

Opting to bowl first, the Indian pace attack made sure that the decision to field stood right as they ran through the New Zealand batting lineup, with Shami drawing first blood. The right-arm pacer got the hosts to a flying start, dismissing Finn Allen for a duck.

Mohammed Siraj struck in the sixth over to get rid of Henry Nicholls 2(17), giving the hosts their second breakthrough. The Hyderabad-born speedster has been making the ball talk, putting the batters in a spot of bother with incredible spells in the last few ODIs.

Shami continued to be a menace for the batters as he got rid of Daryl Mitchell 1(3) in the seventh over. The Kiwi batter got a leading edge while looking to play the ball through the on-side and the ball popped up to Shami who completed the catch to add a second wicket to his tally.

The visitors sank deeper after Hardik Pandya plucked a catch out of thin air in his followthrough to dismiss Devon Conway 7(16). The left-hander stood in disbelief as Hardik celebrated his first wicket.

Things went from bad to worse for the Kiwi team as they lost skipper Tom Latham 1(17) to pacer Shardul Thakur in the 11th over, reducing the visitors to 15/5.

Latham could not resist himself and poked out on a ball outside the off-stump to get an outside edge which was gleefully accepted by Shubhman Gill. The visitors succumbed to their lowest-ever score for their fifth wicket fall.

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Michael Bracewell, the last match's hero for New Zealand did play a few eye-catching shots and stitched a 41-run partnership with Glenn Phillips for the sixth wicket. However, Shami returned for his second spell to break the partnership, sending Bracewell 22(30) and the visitor's hope of reaching a respectable score packing.

New Zealand were able to get in a partnership of 47 runs for the seventh wicket with Glenn Phillips and Mitchell Santner taking the visitors past the 100-run mark.

Hardik returned for his second spell to lure Santer into a big drive off a slower delivery, dismissing him for a well-made 27(39).

Glenn Phillips was weary he was running out of partners and tried to add some quick runs but lost his wicket to Washington Sundar in the pursuit of upping the scoring rate. The right-hander holed out to Suryakumar Yadav drawing the curtain on his knock at 36(52).

Sundar struck again in the 34th over, dismissing Lockie Ferguson for 1(9) with Suryakumar again aiding the all-rounder in the wicket with a catch on the boundary.

Kuldeep Yadav trapped Blair Tickner right in front of the stumps as he wrapped up the Kiwi innings for 108 runs.

(with inputs from ANI)

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