India vs New Zealand, 2017, 2nd ODI - 5 reasons why India won the match 

India equalised the ongoing 3-match ODI series with a comfortable 6-wicket victory against New Zealand at Pune on Wednesday to make it all to play for in the final match of the series at Kanpur on Sunday.

The team that won the toss and elected to bat first lost for the second time running as the visitors were restricted to 230 in their 50 overs thanks to a brilliant opening spell from the Indian pacers while the batsmen played solidly to see India through.

Here are 5 reasons why India ran out comfortable winners on Wednesday.

#1 Indian pacers making early inroads into New Zealand's top order

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was deservedly named the Man-of-the-Match for his figures of 3/45

The Indian new-ball pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah is getting better with every passing match and their expertise in the shorter formats of the game is a big asset for Virat Kohli's side.

They were right on top of their game on Wednesday as well as they reduced the Black Caps to 27-3 and they never really recovered from the early blows.

Bhuvneshwar was the pick of the Indian bowlers dismissing Martin Guptill and Colin Munro in his opening spell while he also picked up the wicket of the dangerous looking Henry Nicholls after coming back into the attack later on.

He was deservedly named the Man-of-the-Match for his figures of 45/3 from his 10 overs while Bumrah proved more economical conceding just 38 runs and picking up 2 wickets.

#2 Spinners make their mark

Making his comeback into the side, Axar Patel accounted for the in-form Tom Latham

One of the primary reasons for India's loss in the series opener at Mumbai was the failure on the part of the Indian spinners to curtail the New Zealand scoring as well as to get the breakthroughs.

Kuldeep Yadav paid the price as he was left out of the side and was replaced by Axar Patel and the latter accounted for the in-form Tom Latham, who had led to India's downfall at Mumbai.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedhar Jadhav also played their roles beautifully as they put the stranglehold on the New Zealand scoring during the middle overs as well as picking up some key wickets.

#3 New Zealand's failure to get a big score

The New Zealand batsmen were guilty of not converting their starts into big totals

India's fantastic start with the ball meant that New Zealand had it all to do right from the early overs but they never quite managed to recover from the early blows.

The Kiwis heroes from the 1st ODI - Ross Taylor and Tom Latham - did produce a brief rescue act, but unlike the match in Mumbai, they both failed to carry on and register a big total.

Colin de Grandhomme and Henry Nicholls also got good starts but even they perished when in their 40s and New Zealand never quite had that stable player at the crease who could have pushed on and got those big shots later on.

As skipper Kane Williamson told in his post-match comments, a total of 230 was never going to be enough and that is in part to India's brilliant bowling as well as the New Zealand batsmen failing to score big.

#4 Shikhar Dhawan getting back to his best

Dhawan is on a good run of form for India at the top of the order

Shikhar Dhawan is well and truly back. There was a time early on in the year when doubts were cast on India's opening pair but they way Dhawan has responded to his critics has laid those questions to rest.

After his menacing show against Sri Lanka, Dhawan had a minor blip at Mumbai but was back to his best on Wednesday while also making good use of the DRS to survive a close call.

After an aggressive start to his innings, Dhawan showed great composure to build the Indian innings along with Dinesh Karthik to register his first ever ODI half-century against New Zealand.

Dhawan is a joy to watch when in song and Indian cricket fans would be hoping that the left-handed batsman continues his purple patch in the coming matches as well.

#5 Solid batting performance from the Indian batting line-up

Dinesh Karthik has given a good account of himself in the series so far

While it is true that New Zealand got enough runs on the board after electing to bat first, there was still a job to be done and India did well to negate the threat of Tim Southee and Trent Boult with the new ball.

Rohit Sharma found himself heading to the pavilion early on and skipper Virat Kohli also perished after making a good start.

Dhawan, along with Dinesh Karthik, ensured, however, that the Indian run-chase was never in a spot of bother as they played patiently seeing off the good balls while also dismissing the bad ones with disdain.

Even when Hardik Pandya walked into the middle to replace Dhawan, the youngster played a mature innings providing good support to Karthik, who played brilliantly remaining unbeaten on 64 as India won the match with four overs to spare.