India survived a dramatic batting collapse and a Wellington downpour to beat New Zealand by four runs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in the second one-day international on Saturday, taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match series on a day when Virat Kohli passed one of the great batting landmarks of the format.
Chasing 135 in a match reduced to 47 overs a side by rain, India had slipped to 113 for seven after 26 overs when the weather closed in for the final time. At that point the visitors were four runs ahead of the DLS par score of 109, and with no further play possible the match was called off at 11.00 pm local time, handing India a win that had looked anything but certain an hour earlier.
The chase had begun in the worst possible fashion. Captain Shubman Gill was dismissed from the first ball he faced, caught in the slip cordon off Jacob Duffy, and Kohli followed soon after for seven, driving uppishly to Will Young at cover off the same bowler. Rohit Sharma made 23 before he too departed, and by the ninth over India were 39 for three, their celebrated top order dismissed for almost nothing on a pitch offering seam movement under heavy cloud.
Kohli's brief stay at the crease still produced the defining individual moment of the day. A trademark cover drive early in his innings took him past Ricky Ponting's long-standing record for the most runs scored against New Zealand in one-day internationals. Kohli now has 1,978 runs against the Black Caps at an average of 56.51, with seven hundreds and 11 fifties, moving ahead of Ponting's career total of 1,971. He fell for seven from seven balls, but the record had already changed hands.
Shreyas Iyer's 30 and an unbeaten 26 from KL Rahul steadied India after the early damage, yet the wickets kept falling around them. Axar Patel, Naman Dhir and Anshul Kamboj all departed cheaply, and when Kamboj fell India were 111 for seven, still needing runs and running out of partners. Duffy and Kyle Jamieson finished with three wickets apiece, and it was only Rahul's composure at the other end that kept India fractionally ahead of the par score when the rain returned.
Earlier, India's young bowling attack had produced a performance of rare dominance to dismiss New Zealand for just 134 in 41 overs, the lowest total the Black Caps have ever posted at home against India. The previous mark, 142 all out at Auckland on 27 March 1994, had stood for more than three decades. Daryl Mitchell offered the only sustained resistance with 55 from 104 balls, and captain Mitchell Santner contributed 31, but no other home batter passed 25 as the innings folded at barely three runs an over.
Gurnoor Brar was the destroyer-in-chief, taking a career-best four for 30 from his 10 overs, including two maidens, and was named player of the match. The tall fast bowler used the short ball to telling effect through the middle order, and his figures are now the third-best by an Indian bowler against New Zealand in a one-day international in New Zealand. He was backed superbly by Auqib Nabi, who took two for 31, Anshul Kamboj with two for 25, and Axar Patel with two for 28, while Arshdeep Singh's seven overs cost only 16 runs.
The match had begun with India winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, a decision the overcast conditions and a lively pitch vindicated almost immediately. New Zealand lost wickets in clusters from the start, slipping to 53 for five before Mitchell and Santner staged a partial recovery, and the lower order could add only 22 more runs once that stand was broken. Rain had already reduced the contest to 47 overs a side before a ball was bowled, and the weather's repeated interventions eventually decided the outcome.
The result continues a series in which India's bowlers have dictated terms. In the rain-affected opening match in Auckland, Kohli's 74 had powered India to a five-wicket win, and across the two games New Zealand have now managed only 185 and 134 in their completed innings. For the hosts, the batting is the urgent concern: a line-up that produced just two scores above 30 on home soil will need a rapid rethink, even though Santner was able to praise his bowlers for dragging a seemingly lost match to within four runs of a famous win.
Attention now moves to Hamilton, where the third one-day international is scheduled for Tuesday, 10 November. India can seal the series with another victory, while New Zealand must find runs from a top order that has been dismissed cheaply twice in a row. If the weather stays kind and the hosts' batters respond, the series still has room to turn; if the pattern of the first two matches holds, India will be celebrating a series win with two games to spare.
