The second ODI between New Zealand and India takes place in Mount Maunganui on Saturday with the home side knowing they can ill afford to lose the match else they will fall two down with three matches remaining in the series.
India delivered a classy and high quality effort to see off the Kiwis in Napier earlier in the week and if they can repeat that feat here then they will have broken the back of the series and will give themselves three goes at winning it.
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New Zealand
It was a very un-New Zealand like display in the first match. Whether the ease in which they beat Sri Lanka earlier in the month had provided them with a false sense of security, or whether it was just a completely poor day at the office, I’m not sure but whatever it was they will hope the outing acts as a wakeup call that no matter how well they are going they can’t take their eye off the ball at any stage.
Right from the moment both openers were dismissed in the first powerplay the result looked pretty inevitable and that should disappoint the New Zealand players the most. To be fair when a side like India get on top they are extremely hard to stop but there was a lack of game awareness and they couldn’t find someone to mastermind their way out of the situation which you need in games like that.
India
I would imagine India will be delighted with their performance in Napier. I don’t think they were absolutely perfect but the job was done pretty early on and there was never any way they were not going to chase down such a paltry total, so it is understandable why they didn’t completely convince with the bat, not that there is too much of a concern with their top order.
India will be looking for another bowling performance as good as the one they just delivered. They will know claiming the openers early offers up a huge chance of winning the match and that will be their target. The daunting thing is that as easily as India won that first game, there is still so much more to come from them.
Team News
New Zealand might be compelled to change their side after their struggles of the first ODI. You would think their top five have enough credit in the bank so it could be the bowlers that get altered. Ish Sodhi could come in on a much bigger ground.
India have confirmed that they will be making changes later in the series but they are unlikely to tinker with too much until they get the series won so it would be a surprise if they don’t go in with an unchanged side here.
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Betting
The Bay Oval might be a high scoring ground but I’m not convinced this will be a match with as many runs in it as the bookmakers seem to think there will be. I say that because India’s bowlers delivered a performance that will make New Zealand think here. I always worry about a batting line up when spin rips through them early in a series. It highlights a lack of preparation and rarely is there time to sort it out.
With that in mind a 570.5 runs line could be a little on the high side so I’m happy to take the under here despite what happened between New Zealand and Sri Lanka earlier in the month. India have only conceded 300+ in three of their last 26 ODIs and two of them were when West Indians went bonkers on them. I’ll back both bowling attacks to keep the runs below this total here.
Tips
WON – Back Under 570.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Bet365
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