India vs New Zealand: Third ODI Christchurch, New Zealand Report status: End of match

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India celebrated their New Year party at the Cathedral Square in Christchurch last evening. The Kiwis partied at the Jade stadium all afternoon today at the expense of the Indians, with a five-wicket victory, chasing 109, to go up 3-0 in the ODI series.

Indian innings:

For the optimistic Indian supporter, the first morning of the year was as unhappy as the last fortnight, which saw the Indian team being beaten by the home side in all the matches they played. The team will have to ensure that the success they tasted in the abridged version of the game last year was not a false dawn.

The only thing skipper Sourav Ganguly has managed to win on this tour has been the toss. Today, he called right again and elected to take first strike. With Sachin Tendulkar failing to recover in time for the third encounter, a forlorn VVS Laxman, excluded from the World Cup squad less than 48 hours ago, was included along with all-rounder Ajit Agarkar, who replaced left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra.

Virender Sehwag batted like a millionaire, which is brilliant when the wickets are flat, and paid the price, nicking Kyle Mills to keeper Brendon McCullum, trying an expansive horizontal batted stroke. The maturity that gleamed from his century in the second one-dayer stayed right there.

Ganguly, going through another lean patch, was reprieved when he edged a ball from Mills towards Stephen Fleming at first slip only for the keeper to go for and grass the catch. All talk of Ganguly struggling against pace owing to a technical shortage is a laugh. On the tour to the West Indies last year, he was the only batsman who stayed at the crease, negotiating the pace bowlers with grit and determination -- two ingredients that make up for paucity in shot-making.
Ganguly's ghosts lie in his head. His statement that he did not feel like he was playing a Test series after the first Test defeat was alarming and loaded with the potential for a huge debate.

Is this Indian side jaded with the non-stop globetrotting and the World Cup about a month away? Is this Indian team submitting to the complacency that the wickets in New Zealand are nothing like the ones in South Africa, little realizing that small battle victories prepare squadrons for the big war?
      
In the midst of these floating thoughts Ganguly was dismissed in similar fashion, touching a ball from Tuffey to the keeper. At 16 for two in the ninth over, India were in a world they have come to inherit.

Repairmen Laxman and Rahul Dravid got together to make up for the milk spilt early in the innings. When their brief and struggling stand was busted, the Indian turn realized they were caught in a huge oil spill. Laxman's dismissal was bizarre, yet predictable, with umpire Asoka De Silva recording another bad decision against the Indians. Seamer Paul Hitchcock appealed for a caught-behind, but replays showed the ball was nowhere close to the bat. Earlier, two clear edges were left unpunished by the home umpire David Cowie.

Despite the sun screaming down out of the bright sky, the wicket retained the moisture that was in it. Ironically, this is supposed to be the flattest track in New Zealand. Former Kiwi seamer Gavin Larsen, commenting on television, remarked that the curator failed to see him in the eye before the game while discussing the nature of the wicket. Minutes later Larsen admitted that the seam movement on the wicket was too exaggerated even to his liking.

Mohammad Kaif and Dravid brought some sanity to the proceedings, negotiating the insane seam and rotating the strike. The scoring rate was snail-paced yet stable. The normally ice-cool Dravid, looking to up the tempo, attempted a pull off Hitchcock and saw a top-edge brilliantly caught by Daniel Vettori at mid-on for 20. At the halfway stage, the India ship, at 67-4, was sinking.

Kaif and Sanjay Bangar surrendered to the seaming track, being caught at the wicket. Yuvraj Singh fought a lone battle before an unfortunate dismissal saw him heading back to the dressing room. Zaheer Khan played the ball straight back to bowler Hitchcock, who got his fingers to the ball before it crashed into the stumps with Yuvraj backing up too much.

A few tail-ender swings later, the Indian side was gone for 108 in 41 overs without a glimmer of a fight. The Indian planning for the last two one-day series seems to have gone down the drain with the matches against the West Indies played on featherbeds and bald outfields and the three one-dayers against the Kiwis being played on seaming tracks. The experimentation phase should now be followed by the get-your-basics-right, kick-up their backsides, by coach John Wright.

New Zealand innings:

"What do we do?" asked skipper Stephen Fleming, during the 75-minute lunch break, "with a paltry total of 109 to get." He was talking out of memory, having seen his team trailing at 52-6, chasing the same total in the first one-dayer.

"I'm gonna have a dip," opener Nathan Astle replied.

In one single over from Javagal Srinath -- his third and the fifth of the innings -- Astle dipped and sunk India's hopes of a fightback. Astle cracked five boundaries off the veteran speedster in an over that cost 22 runs, took Srinath out of the attack and further hampered India's preparations for the World Cup.    

Having picked seven wickets in the first two games, Srinath bowled a fairly predictable length today for Astle to tear apart, much the same way he scored the fastest double century against England earlier this year on the same ground.

Having read Srinath's length in his first two overs, Astle danced down the track and smashed the first ball, which flew to the extra cover fence. Ditto the next ball, this time only squarer past point.

Srinath, refusing to alter his game plan, pitched on the same spot and saw the ball fly to the extra cover fence yet again. The veteran Indian pacer finally decided to alter his length, pulling it back a few yards, only for Astle to swivel and send the ball packing to the square leg fence. Astle, finally, ended the over the way he had started it -- a blistering boundary to the extra cover fence.   

If conceding 12 runs off the first three deliveries, when defending a target of 109 is a crime, then 22 off an over calls for a public debate especially when its your most experienced bowler as the aggressor. 

Fleming, at the other end, struggled as he had through the series before Zaheer Khan had him edging the ball to Mohammad Kaif at third slip. Agarkar, bowling with rare discipline, packed off Sinclair with a low return catch for a blob.

Srinath came back for his second spell and got his revenge against Astle, who swung at him again only to offer a tall catch at mid-off to Ganguly. Astle's 30-ball 32 had settled the match as the rest of the game was purely of statistical value.

Craig McMillan batted with studied intensity after a poor outing with the bat this season. Along with Lou Vincent, he guided the Kiwis to the target with great care. Thirteen runs off Zaheer Khan in the 14th over proved the final screw that was pulled out to dismantle the Indian device.

Agarkar returned figures of 3 for 26, thus rewarding the faith of the team-management.

India will now have to win all the remaining four matches to win the series. The task seems tough though not impossible with the return of Sachin Tendulkar for the for the fourth one-dayer at Queenstown.

PS: A word about Martin Crowe calling for Ganguly's head. In the January issue of the Wisden monthly edition, this is what Crowe had to say about Ganguly's captaincy: "In one-day cricket he is outstanding with the bat, and therefore leads very much by example from the opening slot. I like India's chances to make the top four under a captain who knows that if he bats at his best the rest will follow. This is Ganguly's greatest advantage over (Stephen) Fleming."   

In a column, dated December 29, on the magazine's web site, this is what he had to say: "I think a change of captaincy will help him and India. I think Sachin Tendulkar, as the best player in the side, should captain India. He is a great thinker; has the best cricketing brain and him taking over would give Ganguly a chance to sort out some problems. It's worrying from an Indian point of view that Ganguly has got into such a dispirited mode. This is not the way to lead a young side and definitely not any side that needs direction with the World Cup around the corner."

Would Martin Crowe want to offer the same advice to Stephen Fleming after having scored just 17 runs --- one lesser than Ganguly -- in the three one-dayers so far? 

Cricketers never stop having bad days, Martin?