New Zealand’s Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme wreaked havoc with the new ball to bundle out India for 92 in the fourth and penultimate ODI in Hamilton on Thursday which the hosts won with eight wickets to spare.
Bowling his 10 overs at a stretch, Boult troubled the Indian batsmen with his swing to return with impressive figures of 5 for 21. Boult was ably supported by Grandhomme (3/26) as the duo made perfect use of the new ball and swung the ball both ways to make life miserable for Indian batsmen after New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson won the toss elected to bowl.
In the absence of Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian batting unit found the going tough against the Kiwi bowling attack and lost wickets regularly to slump to their seventh lowest ODI total.
India’s lowest ODI total is 54 against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 2000 and at 40/7 that seemed in real danger of being obliterated. Eventually, they managed to avoid that ignominy as well as going past the lowest score against New Zealand (88).
Struggling at 55/8, Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav shared 25 runs for the ninth wicket to take India close to the 100-run mark before being shot out in 30.5 overs.
And, believe it or not, Chahal — batting with the iconic MRF logo on his willow — faced the most number of deliveries and top-scored for the Indian side. Who could have thought?
Here’s how social media reacted to India’s collapse and Chahal’s starring role with the bat.
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