India completed a clean sweep with a 90-run win against New Zealand in the third match in Indore on Tuesday, with Rohit Sharma scoring his first ODI century in three years and Shubman Gill continuing his dominance with another beautiful tonne. Batters from both teams heated up the dead rubber, scoring 680 runs at Holkar Stadium. Rohit (101 off 85 balls) reached three figures for the first time since January 2020, while Gill (112 off 78 balls) made his fourth ODI century to help India reach 385 for nine.
Following two failures, New Zealand’s top-order performed much better. Devon Conway (138) made key partnerships, but Shardul Thakur (3/45) and Kuldeep Yadav (3/62) struck frequently to dismiss the Black Caps for 295 in 41.2 overs.
It was India’s second straight clean sweep after defeating Sri Lanka last week.
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Conway scored 106 runs with Henry Nicholls and 78 runs with Daryl Mitchell after Hardik Pandya (1/37) got rid of Finn Allen (0). (24).
The Indian spinners struggled at first in the absence of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, conceding runs as Conway tonked the ball all over the field.
Shardul, on the other hand, managed to flip the game by dismissing Mitchell and Tom Latham (0) in the 26th over.
Thakur followed up with a cross-seamed delivery that sent Glenn Phillips (5) packing.
Umran Malik (1/52) then got Conway as the centurion pulled awkwardly, with Rohit doing the rest at midwicket as New Zealand threatened to lose control of the contest.
The tail was subsequently cleaned up by the spin pair of Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/43).
Earlier, Rohit and Gill set up a ferocious 212-run opening stand, sharing 22 fours and 11 sixes.
On the eve of the match, Rahul Dravid quipped that bowlers don’t want to bowl as soon as they arrive in Indore because of the batter-friendly conditions. The batting legend was correct, and the New Zealanders rolling over their arms throughout the first 25 overs would have agreed with Dravid.
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At one point, every ball touched by Rohit and Gill’s bat was either soaring to or past the boundary.
Gill smashed four fours and a six off Lockie Ferguson’s eighth over to score 22 runs, exemplifying the 23-year-recent old’s form.
The child didn’t even have to timing the ball to run to the boundary. He hit the short ball for an upper-cut six after three fours.
The relatively inexperienced New Zealand bowling outfit had no answers to the Indian openers’ mayhem, with the outfield quick and the surface flat.
Both Rohit and Gill scored century in the 26th over. Rohit drew away to deep square to reach his target, and Gill reached the triple-figure milestone three balls later, his third in four innings.
New Zealand skipper Tom Latham deployed up to six bowlers, and it was spinner Michael Bracewell, his sixth option, who gave the tourists their first breakthrough.
Attempting to slug one out of the park, Rohit missed the ball as it stayed low and twisted to smash the stumps. The partisan crowd erupted at his wicket, welcome Virat Kohli (36).
Gill’s innings was ended by a miscued shot in the next over, as New Zealand struck again in quick succession.
Ishan Kishan (17) appeared uneasy and took nine balls to open his account. The wicketkeeper batter’s time in the middle ended with a yes-no with Kohli, who had ran halfway.
New Zealand were able to hit boundaries and sixes, and Kohli was unable to beat Finn Allen at mid-off while seeking to play a huge shot.
India, on track for a 400-plus total, suffered a classic middle-order batting collapse until Hardik Pandya (54 off 38 balls) supplied the finishing touch.
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