Raipur, Jan 21 (Representative) Mohammad Shami-led bowling attack sliced through the New Zealand top and middle order, skittling out the visitors to a paltry 108 runs in the second ODI at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium here on Saturday. At one stage, Kiwis were tottering at 15/5 after they were sent into bat by Rohit Sharma. The pitch did a fair bit upfront due to the grass cover on it. But it was by no means devils in it. The fault lay with the New Zealand batsmen who played far too many casual shots to get out.Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur did not give up after a devastating spell by Shami (3/18) and Siraj (1/10). They continued to put pressure on Kiwi batsmen, while leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav kittied one in his bag.Glenn Phillips (36), Michael Bracewell (22) and Mitchell Santner (27) were the only batsmen to get going, but could not convert it into big scores, to dole New Zealand out of the woods. Siraj gave the first blow to New Zealand when he forced opener Henry Nicholos edge one to Shubman Gill in slips. Shami and Hardik took stunning catches on their own bowling to give marching orders to Darly Mitchell (1) and Devon Conway (7).
Shardul Thakur forced Tom Latham (1) to thick-edge to Gill in the slips, who celebrated his second catch of the match. Sunk in deep trouble, last match centurion Bracewell (22) and Philips (36) prevented the visitors from folding their innings below 100.Shami hurled a sharp bouncer at Bracewell who edged it to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps soon after he had cracked two consecutive boundaries. Santer and Phillips took the total past 100 runs with a 47-run stand for the seventh wicket. However, they lost their wickets to Washington Sundar (2/7) and Hardik, in a span of six balls, plugging visitors’ hopes of a recovery.Santner played-on Hardik’s slower ball on to the stumps, and Phillips gave a routine catch to Surya Kumar Yadav at deep midwicket off a Sundar. India are in the box seat to seal the series. It’s a hopeless case for New Zealand, unless their bowlers make early inroads.