India’s day of wreckoning

Will Young hit a century and Matt Henry took six wickets as New Zealand sealed a dominant 244-run victory by bowling India out for 89 in the fourth ODI on Friday to remain afloat in the series.

The hosts trail India 2-1 and can no longer win the five-match series, but they can avoid defeat if they win the final match at the same venue on Sunday. The third match was abandoned due to rain.

Chasing 334 for victory, India got off to a disastrous start as paceman Henry ripped through their top order in a lethal first over, taking the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer to leave the visitors reeling on 0-3.


Ruturaj Gaikwad also departed shortly afterwards, but a steely 44-run partnership between Ishan Kishan (27) and Axar Patel (21), and a quickfire 21 from Naman Dhir helped India avoid a record defeat by the slimmest of margins.

Their worst-ever defeat in terms of runs came in a 245-run loss to Sri Lanka in 2000.

Henry took three more wickets as India were bundled out for their sixth-lowest ODI total.

“The wind was so strong and I was keeping things very simple,” Henry said. “It’s funny how things work out when you’re just trying to have a simple game plan and not getting too carried away.”

Brief scores

New Zealand 333 (Young 125, Seifert 58; Axar 2/39) beat India 89 (Kishan 27; Henry 6/27, Fisher 3/31) by 244 runs.