Speaking to Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar wildly delved into New Zealand’s first innings performance, explaining that Rohit Sharma’s break in the toss was long.
In his second ODI underway Team India bowled brilliantly in his form as New Zealand headed out to Raipur on Saturday with 108 in his 34.3 overs. The home side’s batting order fell apart as Mohammed Shammi took three wickets while Hardik Pandya and the Washington Thunder took two wickets each. Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj, Shadur Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav have each been laid off.
First, guest captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose bowling. New Zealand got off to a bad start when opener Finn Allen was sacked for five deliveries from Shami. Devon Conway (7), Henry Nichols (2), Darrl Mitchell (1) and skipper Tom Latham (1) also had disastrous results.
Glenn Phillips (36), Michael Bracewell (22) and Mitchell Santner (27) tried unsuccessfully to rebuild New Zealand’s innings. Meanwhile, Lockie Ferguson (1) and Blair His Tickner (2) returned home with nothing to do and Henry Shipley (2*) was undefeated.
Former Indian player Sanjay Manjurekar opined in his speech at his sporting star that New Zealand’s collapse was a bigger story than India’s deadly bowling feat. “I think it’s going to be very difficult because New Zealand are World Cup finalists and it didn’t look too infamous for a team like this on the field in the afternoon to put up a performance like that. I understand India is a quality country, the bigger story is New Zealand collapsing with this result, in fact I think Rohit Sharma’s toss break was longer than the NZ innings.
Manjrekar also welcomed his Seam Bowling attack in India, noting his ability to adapt after his first ODI. “What really impressed me was the maturity of the seam bowling attack. In the last game, we noticed that bowling second ground hits weren’t very common. They started bowling easily and that’s how they got their gate today. They returned to their main objective, today being his second one-day international competition, and we can see that many wickets fit in their slots and are almost full length. So I love how they’ve adapted,” he said.