India Takes Unassailable 3-0 Lead

Virat Kohli and company defeated the Kiwis at home in the 3rd ODI by 7 wickets to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the ODI series against New Zealand. Although it was meant to be a tight contest between the world number 2 India and world number 3 New Zealand, a whitewash is likely possible for India now. The Kiwis had not lost a single ODI against India since 2009, however statistics doesn’t bother the new Indian brigade. During the New Zealand batting session, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham contributed 93 and 51 runs to the scoreboard, a reasonable total of 243. Shami was the pick of the bowlers claiming 3 wickets while Bhuvneshwar, Chahal and comeback man Hardik Pandya claimed 2 wickets each. However, India chased down the total in 43 overs, with the top five batsmen contributing decent runs. Rohit scored 62, Virat scored a classy 60 and the middle order batsmen Dinesh Karthik (38*) and Ambati Rayudu (40*)were also in a fine form. With this 60 runs, Kohli became the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to complete 5,000 runs in successful run-chases.