IND vs NZ 3rd ODI: The Indian Cricket team on Wednesday suffered an ODI series defeat against New Zealand after the third one-day outing ended in a no result. The Men in Blue took the field of Christchurch in a bid to level the series but were outplayed in the batting before rain washed the outing in the second innings. With this Shikhar Dhawan has also lost his first ODI series as India's captain.
The Indian team were 1-0 down in the series before this match and needed a win to avoid a series defeat. However, they were outclassed in the batting on a pitch that was helping the bowlers. New Zealand bowled well as the Men in Blue managed only 219 on the board. For India, Washington Sundar top scored with 51 runs in 64 balls. Shreyas Iyer was the only other batter with a reasonable contribution as he scored 49 in 59 balls.
Coming out to chase, the New Zealand batters displayed a good show. They started steadily but once they broke shackles, they were hard to stop. India managed to get Allen after his fifty but the rain came down and the match stopped after the 18th over. With this India have lost yet another ODI series in India and this is also Dhawan's first ODI series loss as captain.
Dhawan goes down for the first time as India lose another ODI series
Shikhar Dhawan has led India in four ODI series till now and it was the first time that India's stand-in captain has lost an ODI series. He has led the Men in Blue in 50-over outings against Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa, all of which ended in India's favour. Notably, this is also India's consecutive ODI series loss in New Zealand. The Men in Blue, who have lost the series by 1-0 had earlier lost an ODI series in New Zealand by 3-0 in 2020. Ahead of that series, India clean-swept the Kiwis in T20Is by 5-0. Similarly this time too, India have won the T20I series by 1-0.
Notably, both series were interrupted by rain. The first T20I in Wellington was washed out without a toss, while the third T20I ended in a tie after rain interrupted. The second ODI of this series was washed away and ended in a no result, while this ODI also resulted as a no result after rain played spoilsport.
