6th ODI: India beat New Zealand by 1 wicket

AUCKLAND: If you ever wondered what the Japanese Kamikaze pilots were like, watch a rerun of Saturday’s One-day International cricket between India and New Zealand at the Eden Park here. The eras are different and the two performed on different spheres, but the intentions of the Indian batsmen and the Japaese were identical: suicidal. And no, it can’t be called hara-kiri, for that was a ritual to avoid disgrace; the Indians were instead dying to embrace disgrace.
It’s just fate, and Virender Sehwag’s virtuosity, that defeated their efforts and India emerged victorious by one wicket and a ball to spare.It was the most thrilling match of the tour, bizarre though. Chasing 200 for victory, Sehwag with a masterful 112 and an opening partnership of 70 with Sourav Ganguly, had set the stage for an emphatic win. When Sehwag departed, fourth out, the Indians needed just 18 runs from seven overs. It seemed that the one over that the Indians were docked for slow over-rate wouldn’t matter at all. But the notorious Indian witlessness came to the fore and they lost the next five wickets for just 16 runs.
And Shane Bond wasn’t even there to bowl! The wickets just fell inexplicably in a heap and defeat loomed large. But last man Ashish Nehra pulled the penultimate delivery to the ropes for victory and saved India from disgrace. Who would have envisioned such an end when Sehwag was at the crease? He seemed to be taking India to victory single-handedly, and he actually did. The second highest contributor to the Indian score was Mr Extras at 25. The end did no justice to Sehwag’s majestic effort. Rarely do you see such magnificent, nah contemptuous, batsmanship as the 21,000-weekend crowd witnessed on Saturday as Sehwag blasted away to his fifth One-day International century and the third against the Kiwis. His 139-ball knock of 112 was a kaleidoscope of brilliant, blazing strokeplay — the bat sashaying down in an arc and ruthlessly dismissing the ball from its presence.
And the three maximums he hit — each one of them high into the stands — were cruel excesses of his mastery. Aside Sehwag, the only other batsman to make an impact was, rather surprisingly, Shane Bond. His fearsome reputation with the ball walks before him, but few, if any, had any inkling of how frightening his willow could be. It was probably just a slugfest, but even then it was impressive. For all the Kiwis batsmen had struggled against some disciplined Indian bowling, led once again by the many-medalled Karnataka speedster Javagal Srinath. Even the slog overs didn’t prove too productive for the Black Caps as they crawled from 132 for six at the end of the 40th over to 147 for nine in 46.4 overs. But Bond’s career-best, unbeaten 15-ball 31 — and his 52-run partnership for the last wicket with Lou Vincent off just 3.2 overs — took the Black Caps score zooming to 199.
The Kiwis scored 48 runs from the last three overs of their innings and 37 from the last two as Bond hauled Sourav Ganguly high into the stands twice in the penultimate over, and then he and Vincent took a maximum each off Zaheer in the final over which was worth 19. Ganguly, whose strike-rate in limited overs cricket (42.2) is as good as Harbhajan’s (41.2), finished with one for 31 from eight overs. But he had much impressive figures earlier with just eight runs from his first five overs and the scalp of Scott Styris, which brought to an end a defiant 80-run fifth wicket partnership. Srinath finished with an impressive analysis of 10-2-13-3 — the most economical effort by an Indian against the Kiwis and the 10th against any country. It wasn’t surprising because he has been the one constant Indian success story on this tour, having taken 16 of the 43 New Zealand wickets to fall in the six One-day Internationals of this series — the highest thus far on either side with Daryl Tuffey second at nine wickets.
His combined bowling figures read 57.4-8-173-16 — that means a wicket every 21.62 balls at an average of 10.81. The other success story for the Indians has been Sehwag. He has scored two centuries and 295 runs in this series when most batsmen have looked weepy and apologetic. All the other Indian batsmen combined have scored 631 runs. Sehwag also leads the run aggregates for the One-day series by far with Mathew Sinclair second at 143 runs. On to Hamilton now.

If there is one Indian who has redeemed himself in the one-dayers against the Kiwis, it’s Virender Sehwag. The dashing opener hit his second century of the series in Auckland to ensure that India made the scoreline respectable at 2-4 with one to go. Batting was by no means easy on the Eden Park track and Shane Bond was breathing fire from the word go.
Sehwag who has shown definite signs of maturing on this difficult tour, not only weathered the early storm, but also kept the scoreboard moving in typical fashion. The unique aspect of his innings on Saturday was the amount of runs he accumulated behind the wicket on the off-side with trademark slashes over the slips and ferocious cuts towards the point region. When he was dismissed for a brilliant 112, India were only 17 runs adrift of the target which was achieved despite a late-order collapse.
It was clear that for India Sehwag was the difference between victory and defeat.