Thanks to Bumrah, India wins the third ODI by a whisker; pockets the series 2-1

Thanks to late-over heroics of Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian cricket team’s great run in ODI cricket for the past couple of seasons continued with Team India registering its seventh successive series win with a thrilling victory against the marauding Kiwis at the Green Park Statidum in Kanpur yesterday.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and asked India to bat first in a match which was the decider of the series after both the teams had split the first two matches, with the Kiwis winning the opening encounter in Mumbai and the Indians bouncing back to win the second one-dayer at Pune.

Shikhar Dhavan departd early and then came the in-form Virat Kohli, India’s captain and arguably the best batsman in world cricket today across all formats.  It was just another day at office as Kohli and Rohit belted the New Zealand attack to all parts of the park during their 230-run second wicket partnership.  Rohit made 147 while Virat made 113, which was his 32nd ODI century, thus putting him behind next only to ‘God of Cricket’ Sachin Tendulkar on all-time century makers’ list.

India finished with 337/7 with Dhoni providing some fireworks at the end.  Kiwis started off well and had a 109-run second wicket partnership between captain Kane Williamson and opener Colin Munro. Wicket-keeper batsman Tom Latham continued his rich form and it was his wicket in the 48th over which tilted things in India’s favour as New Zealan made a spirited reply while chasing the high-score on a batting pitch.

Jaspirt Bumrah turned out to be the hero for India in the last five overs of the match; his new-ball partner Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who had an off-day, made up for an expensive early spell with a good spell at the death.  Bumra, who contained the batsmen and took three wickets, also accounted for the all-important wicket of Tom Latham via run-out
by hitting the stumps directly.

The two teams meet again on Wednesday in the first of the three T20 matches at the Feroze Shah Kotla Cricket ground in the national capital.