Gambhir, Kohli Sizzle As India Seals Series

On Saturday, India skipper Gautam Gambhir hit an unbeaten 126 and his teammate Virat Kohli hit an unbeaten 63 to help India win the third ODI of the five match series against New Zealand and Seal the series. India now lead the five match series 3-0.

The main key players like Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, M.S Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh have been rested for the upcoming series against South Africa. So gambhir had been handed the baton of captaincy which he handled really well.

After the recently conclude Test series against the Kiwis, the Indians were ready to face them in the ODIs. But as we all know the Kiwis playede really well in the first two matches of the Test series and didn’t allow India to win any one of them. But they failed to live up to the expectations of their fans in the last game and faced a humiliating defeat to the No. 1 Test team of the world.

So all the Indian fans were aware of the good form of the Kiwis and were not hoping that, the Indians would manage to win the Series without their key players. But thanks to the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli that India managed to post good totals and chase down high scores, and helped their team to win the series. Even the bowlers like Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Ravinchandran Ashwin chipped in by wickets at crucial stages but the main credit goes to to batsmen mentioned above.

In the first ODI Indian team got off to a brisk start, but after the early departure of the two openers it was up to the middle order to guide the team to safety. Virat Kohli hit a patient century and Yuvraj Singh chipped in with auseful 42 to guide India to a good total of 276. Then Sreesanth, Ashwin and Yuvraj bagged three wickets each to dismiss the New Zealanders 40 runs short of the Indian total as India closecin on the match.

In the second ODI the Kiwi batting line up had a couple of good innings and a few chipped ones too. Thanks to the Indian pacer Sreesanth, who bagged four wickets to restrict the Kiwis to 258/8 in 50 overs. But Indian opener Gautam Gambhir had already decided to thrash the Kiwi bowling attack and he hit a brisk 138* of just 116 and was helped by Virat Kohli’s 73 ball 64 as Indai won the match by 8 wickets and 42 balls to spare.

In the third ODI the Kiwis were off a very shaky start, all thanks to the good Indian fielding and the tight bowling by the bowelrs. But then the Kiwi middle order batsman James Franklin(72*) steadied the Kiwi innings with the help of Nathan McCullum(43) and guided the Kiwis to a total of 224/9 in 50 overs. But the both the Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and murali Vijay Krishna paid no heed to the Kiwi bowling and added 115 runs for the first wicket before Murali Vijay got out foolishly. But the yougster Virat Kohli then accmpanied his skipper to thrash the bowling attack as India reached their arget in just 39.3 overs without losing another wicket to seal the series.

Now the Indian team will have scope for some experiiment and be able to realise what are the areas they need to work on anmd the selectors will also be able to pick the best possible side for the upcoming World Cup.