India v New Zealand, V ODI, Visakhapatnam – Preview

As the New Zealand players made their way to their final practice session on the tour of India, one could see the toll this tour has taken on them on their tired faces. But once the guards, who accompanied them from Dr YS Rajashekara Reddy ACA-VDCA Stadium to the idyllic training grounds, broke away and let the players get on with it, a few smiles broke out. The creases on the foreheads remained, but they didn't look nearly as weary.

Clearly, the smiles were of the contagious kind, because within minutes everyone had one on, and they only got wider and the players got louder as they played some touch football. The scene was straight out of a physical training class for primary school children, only it played out in Visakhapatnam on a warm Friday (October 28) afternoon with a big game set up for the morrow.

Perhaps, with that attitude, it will bring down the stress for the New Zealanders as they try to cross the final hurdle when the game gets underway.

As for India, although it was an optional session, many of the seniors turned up along with Anil Kumble, Sanjay Bangar and the rest of the support staff. Virat Kohli wasn’t around for the crowd to fawn over, but it really didn’t matter because the smattering of people — dominated by men in khaki and net bowlers – got a first hand view of just how disciplined MS Dhoni could be.

While the rest went through sessions just to get a feel of the ball, Dhoni worked specifically on his sweeps for a good length of time. He batted for a few minutes against the pacers and then the spinners, but returned to face the tweakers to iron out his footwork on the sweep. He even asked Kedar Jadhav to monitor his movement. All this emphasis on that particular stroke could have something to do with the fourth ODI, in Ranchi, where Dhoni struggled to put away New Zealand’s spinners in his 11 from 31 balls.

That was just Dhoni fixing the chinks in his own armour. But how does he plan to sort the ones in his team’s?

The problems, even though the series is tied 2-2, start right at the top where the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane hasn’t been able to put on scores worthy of mention. Rahane picked up his slacks with a fine 57 in Ranchi, but Rohit has shown no signs of turning the tide: 14, 15, 13 and 11 are his numbers in the four games so far.

The other problem is with Virat Kohli – not him, but around him. He scored an unbeaten 85 in the first ODI at Dharamsala, India won. He scored a breathtaking 154 not out in the third ODI, India won. He was out for nine in the second ODI, India lost. He was out for 45 in the fourth ODI, India lost. This series is probably not enough to generalise too much, but India’s inability to close out matches after Kohli falls is a growing concern.

Then there’s Dhoni at No. 4, where he has opened the doors for the young middle and lower-order to take over and finish games. He lays the base and hopes that the others can deliver on this foundation. He did that in New Delhi and he tried to do it in Ranchi. It backfired on both occasions as the ones coming after him faltered.

New Zealand will be thankful for that, and to its bowlers, who have notched up two wins despite the batting looking a tad shaky. Martin Guptill struck a good note in Ranchi after a string of failures so that’s one monkey off the back, but the concern is the middle and lower order. After Guptill, Tom Latham and Kane Williamson, there aren’t too many batsmen who have been able to score runs under pressure consistently. There have been stray instances such as Tim Southee’s 55 in the opener and Matt Henry’s unbeaten 39 in Mohali. New Zealand know that its batting is better than that, and must hope that the bowling can deliver the way it has so far one more time.

Should even a percentage of these concerns be addressed and the pitch not turn out to be like the ones during the recent Odisha-Vidarbha and Assam-Rajasthan Ranji Trophy contests where run-scoring seemed impossible, we should be in for a cracking contest.

That of course will only happen if Cyclone Kyant doesn’t change its course and head back towards this coastal town. That would be a shame, not only for the players who live and love to compete under such pressure-cooker situations, but also for the fans, who shouldn’t be denied a chance to watch a game under lights in the second most beautiful stadium in India after the one in Dharamsala.

Teams (from)

India: MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya.

**New Zealand:**Kane Williamson (capt), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Anton Devcich, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Matt Henry, Jimmy Neesham, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling (wk), Tim Southee.