India’s KL Rahul on Wednesday steadied the Men in Blue’s innings after they were in a bit of bother after losing stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, scoring a patient century, his 8th ODI ton of his career. Rahul, who came in at No.5, took 87 deliveries to get to his 100 in an innings peppered with 9 fours and 1 six. He was also the first Indian batter to get to a century at Rajkot’s Niranjan Shah Stadium.
The highest score by an Indian at this stadium before Rahul’s ton was Shikhar Dhawan who scored 96 vs Australia in 2020. In the same match, Rahul had scored 80 runs. Ultimately on Wednesday, the delhi Capitals player ended his innings at 112* as India ended up posting 284/7.
Invited to bat, India were off to a confident start with Rohit (24) and skipper Gil (56) adding 70 runs for the first wicket but Kiwi spinners snatched the momentum with disciplined bowling in middle overs.
Kohli (23), Ravindra Jadeja (27) got starts but could not convert them into big knocks. Nitish Kumar Reddy hit a 21-ball 20. India are leading the three-match series 1-0.
In the 1st ODI at Vadodara, in a 301-run chase that seemed to fritter with a flurry of wickets against New Zealand on Sunday, Rahul took his time to settle in but eventually quelled the nerves by sealing a four-wicket win for India. He got them across the line with some flair too, smashing the winning six for the sixth time in his career. Only the legendary MS Dhoni has done it on more counts (9) for India in one-dayers.
Earlier, New Zealand skipper Michael Bracewell opted to bowl in the second One-day International against India on Wednesday.
The visitors made one change to the side, which lost the opening game by four wickets at Vadoara, giving ODI debut to 31-year-old left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox in place of Adithya Ashok.
Gill also made one change, bringing in pacer Nitish Kumar Reddy in place of Washington Sundar, who got injured in Vadodara.
