After whitewashing New Zealand in the T20I series, India were whitewashed in the ODI series, which is also their worst ODI series defeat in 23 years. India had last been whitewashed 5-0 by the West Indies in a bilateral ODI series with 3 or more matches.
In the third and final ODI, India posted 296 on the board on the back of a century from KL Rahul and a half-century from Shreyas Iyer. New Zealand chased down the target without stuttering much, with their openers doing most of the job and Colin de Grandhomme contributing in the end.
In the opening match of the series, Ross Taylor’s hundred had helped New Zealand chase down 347 while in the second game, India could not chase down 274, courtesy some brilliant bowling by the hosts.
Kohli finished the series with 75 runs – his worst performance in a bilateral ODI series as captain. Last year, he had scored 89 in the ODI series against West Indies at home.
KL Rahul and Iyer have been the finds of the series. At No.5, Rahul has shown consistency and finished the tour with his 4th ODI hundred. He won the man-of-the-series award with 224 runs in the T20Is, and finished the ODI series as the second-highest scorer with 204. Iyer, meanwhile, topped the charts with 217 runs.
“The games were not as bad as the scoreline suggests. It boils down to those chances that we didn’t grab. I don’t think it was not enough to win games in international cricket,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
“With the ball, we were not able to make breakthroughs, we were not at all good on the field. We haven’t played so badly but when you don’t grab those chances, you don’t deserve to win,” he added.
India will now be hoping to compensate for the whitewash by performing well in the Test series.
