It was more interesting than the India-Australia ODI series, and the next ODI assignment against Sri Lanka will probably not be more intriguing than this, if the opinion of many a social media user is to be believed. All thanks to the spirited efforts of Kane Williamson and company. New Zealand arrived with the quest of winning their first ever ODI series in India, and they nearly ended up achieving their goal, falling short in the series decider when they needed just 35 runs from 24 balls and with six wickets. One normally expects a team to win from this situation, especially in the modern era, but they succumbed against the multifarious pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who held their nerves in a tense situation, and helped India to their seventh consecutive bilateral ODI series victory, a new record for them. [caption id=“attachment_4185691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Virat Kohli became the quickest Indian to 9,000 ODI runs during the third ODI. AP[/caption] The series has probably solved India’s dilemma with the No 4 slot, with Dinesh Karthik scoring an unbeaten fifty in the second ODI. It’s time for a cognizant Indian management to give him the much-needed longer run. Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion from the last two ODIs was abstruse, but the gallant Axar Patel made sure that India took the right decision. New Zealand would be delighted with Tom Latham’s success on this tour, especially after his shift to the middle-order. He set a perfect example for young batsmen who want to be successful against Indian spinners in the subcontinental conditions. “Our middle order with the bat was something of a highlight throughout this series. Particularly Tom Latham, from opening the batting to coming into the middle order, taking that role, adopting it like he has and batting so beautifully, it was a great sign for us,”
said Black Caps captain Williamson
after the third ODI at Kanpur. The world saw what New Zealand are capable of achieving in foreign conditions, as they already had an idea about India’s strength on home soil. The ‘Men in Blue’ were given a rude wake-up call in the first one-dayer, but eventually bounced back to win the series 2-1. Let’s look at some of the records broken and created in the recently-concluded ODI series: Hardik Pandya became the first Indian player in the last 20 years to score 500-plus runs and take 25-plus wickets in a calendar year in ODI cricket.
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Virat Kohli has now scored more than 1,000 runs against New Zealand in ODI cricket, taking the least number of innings (17) to get to the milestone.
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Only Sachin Tendulkar (49) has now scored more centuries than Kohli (32) in ODI cricket.
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Tom Latham and Ross Taylor created a new record as a pair in the first ODI at Mumbai, forging the highest stand by New Zealand against India for any wicket in ODIs. They added 200 runs for the fourth wicket, which turned out to be a match-winning effort.
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No captain has scored more centuries than Kohli (6) in a calendar year in ODIs. There are four other captains, including Sourav Ganguly who have hit five centuries.
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Tom Latham is only the second New Zealand wicket-keeper-batsman to score a century in ODIs in India after Brendon McCullum.
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Kohli is the fastest Indian to score 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 ODI runs, as well as the joint-quickest alongside Shikhar Dhawan to 1,000 runs. In the third ODI in Kanpur, he added the 9,000-run mark to that list.
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Rohit Sharma and Kohli have now added four double-century stands in ODIs, the most by any pair.
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Only Ajit Agarkar has taken fewer matches than Jasprit Bumrah to collect 50 ODI wickets.
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Rohit is the second-quickest player to hit 150 sixes in ODI cricket after Shahid Afridi, with the former Pakistan all-rounder taking 160 innings to do so compared to the former’s 165.
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Kohli holds the record for most runs as a captain in a calendar year in ODIs.
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Kohli is only the second Indian player to score 2,000 runs in international cricket in consecutive calendar years in ODIs. He is also the quickest captain to score 5,000 international runs — taking just 93 innings, beating Michael Clarke’s record of 109.
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Over to the T20Is now, with the first match scheduled to take place at New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla. Let’s see if that leg of New Zealand’s ongoing tour of India of the produces as many as records as the ODIs did, or more.