India vs New Zealand 2nd ODI: Gurnoor Brar’s 4-30 seals four-run win

India beat New Zealand by four runs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in a rain-hit second one-day international at Basin Reserve, Wellington, on Saturday (7 November), going 2-0 up in the five-match series.

Gurnoor Brar, playing his 11th ODI, was named player of the match after a personal-best 4 for 30 in 10 overs as New Zealand were bowled out for 134 in 41 overs. The match had been reduced to 47 overs a side after rain delayed the start. India opted to bowl.

Auqib Nabi removed opener Tim Seifert for a duck — Nabi’s maiden international wicket — and Anshul Kamboj took two early wickets as New Zealand slipped to 23 for 3. Brar then bowled a double-wicket maiden in the 20th over, bouncing out Tom Latham (7) and Glenn Phillips (0) and leaving the hosts 53 for 5. Daryl Mitchell made 55 off 104 balls after being dropped on 21 by Shubman Gill at cover, and captain Mitchell Santner scored 31 off 38; they added 59 for the sixth wicket before Axar Patel and Brar broke through. Kamboj finished with 2 for 25, Nabi 2 for 31 and Axar 2 for 28.

Chasing 135, India stumbled. Jacob Duffy bowled Gill for a golden duck with the first ball of the innings and removed Virat Kohli in his next over. Kyle Jamieson’s spell left India 47 for 4 before Shreyas Iyer (30 off 46) and KL Rahul (26 not out off 38, with two fours and two sixes) steadied the chase. Rain then stopped play with India 113 for 7 in 26 overs, still 22 runs short of the target but just ahead on DLS.

“Bowling here in New Zealand, the bounce and the pace really helped me, so I enjoyed it. Obviously, in India the pitches are quite flat, so we have to bowl that hard length. But here, there’s that extra bounce. So, I was just bowling to my strengths, and it worked,” Brar said after the game, Hindustan Times reported. The third ODI is in Hamilton on Tuesday. As The Indian Idiot reported earlier, India won the rain-hit first ODI in Auckland by five wickets.