New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson blamed the top order batsmen for their six-wicket loss in the second One Day International match in the MCA Stadium, Pune. At the end of the day, it was the hosts that won with the same result that the Black Caps had in the 1st ODI, and that was to win by 6 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's three-wicket haul and Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik's half-centuries sealed the deal for the men in blue.
Williamson praised the Indian pacers for doing the job correctly at the start.
With this result, India equalised the three-match ODI series. In the first match, India were defeated by the visitors by six wickets in Mumbai.
"We weren't good enough at the top, India's opening bowlers were very very well, hit the mark, the length on that surface. There's a lesson there for us," Williamson said.
"We know we have to play a lot better to beat these guys. The surface wasn't easy to play fluently and Colin came out and went at run-a-ball. We came here with high hopes, we put a much better performance in Mumbai and we need to be better again in Kanpur," he added.
A disciplined bowling helped India to restrict New Zealand to 230/9.
For New Zealand, middle-order batsmen Grandhomme (41) Henry Nicholls (42) and Tom Latham (38) were the major contributors as no other batsman read the Indian bowlers correctly.
(With IANS Inputs).
