INDIA’S stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cracked an unbeaten 138 off 116 balls to lift the hosts to an eight-wicket win over New Zealand in the second one-day international yesterday.
The left-hander’s eighth one-day century enabled India to surpass New Zealand’s challenging 258-8 with seven overs to spare in the day-night match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur.
The emphatic victory gave India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the hosts had won the first game in Guwahati on Sunday (November 28) by 40 runs.
Gambhir put on 87 for the first wicket with Murali Vijay (33) and 116 for the second with Virat Kohli, who followed up his century in Guwahati with a fluent 64. The skipper hit 18 boundaries in his fluent knock.
Gambhir led India as regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was rested for the series along with other senior players including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
“Getting a century as captain was special, but winning the game was even more special,” said the 29-year-old Gambhir.
“I think 258 was a decent total, but Vijay and Virat batted very well. Hopefully, we can carry the same form into the next game and win the series.”
Fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth set up the win by grabbing four wickets after Gambhir won the toss and elected to field in good batting conditions.
Martin Guptill top-scored for the Black Caps with a dour 70, before Scott Styris boosted the total with 59 off 54 balls.
Sreesanth removed Styris and skipper Daniel Vettori (31) off successive balls in the 46th over, after the pair had put on a quickfire 58 for the fifth wicket.
Nathan McCullum prevented a hat-trick as New Zealand recovered from a middle-order slump to smash 88 runs in the last 11 overs.
“I was impressed with the way we batted, but we bowled extremely poorly,” said Vettori.
“Gambhir played one of the best one-day innings I have seen. We should have bowled better. We gave him too much width and he made us pay for that.
“If you do that on slow wickets, it’s difficult to control the run-rate. We have to be positive for the remaining games and improve in a lot of areas.”
New Zealand were without the injured duo of Brendon McCullum and Daryl Tuffey, but Vettori was back after missing the first game with a back injury.
The third match will be played in Vadodara on Saturday (December 4).
