The onus was on India to bounce back strongly after going down in Wellington, which the team failed to do as New Zealand prevailed once again to seal the three-match ODI series with another praiseworthy effort and win in Auckland in the second game this Saturday (February 8).
The home team posted a fighting total of 273/8 on the back of quality half-centuries from opener Martin Guptill (79) and veteran Ross Taylor (73*) despite a middle-order collapse featuring in-between.
Read Also: Kohli impressed with lower-order contribution despite series-conceding loss in 2nd ODI
It was a disappointing bowling performance from India on the whole as the team failed to press home the advantage gained.
In the run-chase, spells from spearhead Tim Southee (2/41) and debutant pacer Kyle Jamieson (2/42) held the visitors back significantly as even gutsy fifties from Shreyas Iyer (52) and Ravindra Jadeja (55) couldn't take them home.
After the 5-0 whitewash in the T20Is, it was expected that the Indians will continue to ramp past the weakened hosts in the longer version. But what happened, left the whole cricket fraternity surprised as it reacted in admiration of the Black Caps and concerned for an Indian side that should've performed better than it did in the last two games.
Here are the best of those tweets:
