Kyle Jamieson impressive on debut, unwell Southee leads from the front & More- Talking Points from Black Caps v India Eden Park ODI 2020

A fine all round performance from Kyle Jamieson and an excellent half century from the in-form Ross Taylor helped New Zealand beat India by 22 runs at Eden Park and seal the ODI series. Here are our talking points from the game.

Kyle Jamieson stars on debut: Brought into the XI due to Scott Kuggeleijn’s illness, the lanky pacer had a dream ODI debut. Coming in at No.10, his 25* (24) helped New Zealand recover from 197/8 to post a competitive total of 273. Jamieson and Taylor added 76 runs in 51 balls and their partnership swung momentum the Black Caps’ way after India had fought back in the middle stages.

Jamieson was also influential with the ball- he took out Prithvi Shaw, who scored only boundaries in his knock of 24, including three off the first four deliveries of the innings, and later returned to rattle the stumps of Navdeep Saini, who was threatening to pull off an unlikely win for India in the company of Ravi Jadeja.

Unwell Southee leads from the front: Tim Southee was unwell and would probably not have played this game if the Black Caps had enough fit players in their ranks. The onus of leading an inexperienced attack fell on him and he didn’t disappoint- bowling his full quota 10 by the half way stage, and more importantly, accounting for Virat Kohli. The set up to dismiss the Indian captain was fantastic– he could only make 15, and with him went the visitors’ hopes of levelling the series.

Another Jadeja knock in vain: Like it had happened in the World Cup semi-final, Ravi Jadeja played a lone hand, but his fine 55 was not enough to drag India over the line. In the company of the tail, he nearly doubled India’s score- they went from 129/6 to 251 and gave the Black Caps a scare, but fell 22 runs short.

Needless run outs hurt Black Caps: This was perhaps the best Martin Guptill has batted in ODI’s since the World Cup. He scored a run-a-ball 79 and took the attack to Jasprit Bumrah (the MI pacer was more expensive than the much maligned Shardul Thakur, and we don’t see that often!)

However Guptill was run out going for a needless single, and his dismissal triggered a collapse- they went from 157/2 to 197/8. Jimmy Neesham was another who fell in a similar manner. It didn’t hurt the Black Caps thanks to Taylor and Jamieson’s partnership, but on another day, it could very well have.

Did India miss Shami?: He can go for runs, but Mohammad Shami is excellent at cleaning up the tail, and India missed his services in that department today. They had the Black Caps on the ropes at 197/8, but allowed Jamieson and Taylor to pick up 76 off the last 8.

Shami is a better bowler than Shardul Thakur, but the latter is a better batsman, and Kohli likes his team to bat deep. It’s a headache for India’s selectors, and one they’ll need to solve soon.

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