India wins series in New Zealand

41 years after India’s last win in New Zealand (Tiger Patudi was captain and Gavaskar had not debuted!), the Indian cricket team under Dhoni won a series. The final margin of victory, 1-0 does not do justice to the way the two teams played. 2-1 in favour of India would perhaps have been a fairer result. An obdurate Gambhir stood resolutely between a New Zealand victory and India at the second test in Napier.

Today, however, Vettori and his team had the rain to thank for saving them the blushes of a 2-0 defeat at home. About 3 hours of play did take place on Day 5 and with only 2 Kiwi wickets remaining, Indian fans may be forgiven their dreams of a 2-0 series win.  Sadly, India’s somewhat lackadaisical approach in the last session of the game on Day 4 (knowing that rain was forecast for Day 5) meant that the Kiwis lost only 4 wickets on Day. A fighting Ross Taylor continued to frustrate the Indian bowlers on Day 5, scoring a ton in the process. In annother inspired decision, Dhoni tossed the ball to Sachin, who had not bowled at all in the first two test matches. And as has happened in the past, Sachin got two quick breakthroughs.  With Harbhajan taking wickets at the other end, I daresay an Indian victory would have been certain had we got another hour or so of play (the new ball would have been taken and given Zaheer’s form a couple of wickets would not have been a tall ask). But the fickle weather willed otherwise.

What strikes me most about this series win is that all through the series, the entire team has contributed. They have played as a unit- and the results are there for all to see. Dravid has regained some measure of his confidence and while he was denied a deserving ton in the second test by a poor decision, I am sure he will feel quite satisfied, having scored consistently over 50. The icing on the cake must have been his overtaking Mark Waugh’s record of taking the highest number of catches in the slip.

So in spite of all those fears of seaming tracks and bad memories from 2002-03, India have won quite convincingly in New Zealand.

The players have little time to rest and recuperate before the second edition of the IPL gets underway in South Africa. Not all players will be a part of the IPL- but still, it will be an intense 6 weeks of a different brand of cricket in an environment quite aliet to most of the Indian players. And what makes the IPL even more interesting is that traditional rivals will become team-mates and start lotting the downfall of other traditional team-mates.

Congratulations, Team India- and all the best for future successes.