India continued their dominant run after the ODI series win in Australia by continuing the magic in New Zealand. The men in blue won the starting three ODIs to seal the series going into the last two ODIs without the services of Virat Kohli.
Rohit Sharma led the team in the fourth ODI where the team had to face the biggest setback by getting bundled out on a score of just 92 runs. The home team chased the target with ease with more than 35 overs left in the innings and eight wickets remaining.
The men in blue were again struggling at 18/4 in the 5th ODI but Vijay Shankar and Ambati Rayudu held the innings together, equally supported by Hardik Pandya’s late over flourish that meant that the visitors finished on 252 runs.
Indian bowlers then came up with a plot and contained the Kiwi batsman for just 217 runs and won the game by 35 runs to take the series 4-1.
Rohit Sharma may surpass Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma will lead the team in the absence of Virat Kohli who was rested for the T20 series. Someone’s missed chance is someone’s opportunity and this sentence can be well understood by the fact that Rohit Sharma can overtake Virat in terms of number of victories in the shortest format of the game.
Virat has led the men in blue in 20 T20Is and won on 12 occasion, while Rohit has captained the team in 12 occasions and has just lost one match as a captain. Rohit’s win percentage is even better than Kohli.
The Mumbai bound cricketer led Indian team to victory in last year’s Nidahas trophy where Dinesh Karthik helped India win a thrilling final against Bangladesh in a last ball finish. He also led the team in the T20 series against West Indies, where India won 3-0.
The first T20 of the series will be held on 6th February in Wellington followed by games in Auckland on February 8 and Hamilton on February 10.
