IND vs NZ, 3rd ODI: Rain frustrates Shubman Gill after India skipper wins toss in Hamilton; what did the captains say?
Relentless rain frustrated Shubman Gill after the Indian captain won the toss in the third ODI against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Tuesday. After the T20I series, won by India 3-2, was completed without any interruptions, rain has been a constant companion ever since the ODI series started on November 4. India are leading the series 2-0.
While India won the rain curtailed first ODI in Auckland by five wickets, the Men in Blue were 113/7 in 26 overs, chasing New Zealand’s 134, when rain stopped play in the second game in Wellington. India won the game by four runs via Duckworth-Lewis Method (DLS).
Tuesday was no different. After the Indian team were forced indoors on the eve of the match, the toss took place at 9 AM IST, after two hours than the scheduled toss time. India captain Shubman Gill won the toss and opted to field. Notably, this was New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner’s seven toss loss in this tour out of eight games so far (5 T20Is and 3 ODIs).
At what time will IND vs NZ 3rd ODI start?
The match was originally scheduled to start at 7:30 AM IST (3 PM local time). But persistent rain has pushed the start of the match every hour. At the time of writing, the umpires have scheduled an inspection at 5:30 PM local time (10 AM IST). The pitch is fully under covers.
In fact, when the toss was happening, it started to drizzle again, with dark clouds in the background. Earlier, the umpires have had several inspections, but the rain kept coming back time and again.
What did both captains say at toss?
“We’re going to bowl first,” said Shubman at the toss when asked about his decision. The Indian sounded certainly frustrated by the rain. “Quite frustrating on and off. Hopefully, if there’s rain it continues raining. If there’s no rain, hopefully it stops. It’s very difficult and challenging to come back on and then go off. We are playing the same team,” he added.
Asked about the preparations, Shubman was quick to add that India are looking to repeat their performances from the previous matches. “I mean hopefully the weather clears out a bit. We’re gonna try to repeat our performances that we did well. Hopefully a little bit better with the bat today,” said Shubman.
Meanwhile, Santner hoped that 180 runs could be a good score on this wicket, which has been under covers. “We got a good training yesterday. The pitch has been under the covers for a while so it will do a bit. Maybe 180 might have been a good score on that pitch in the last game and we have to assess today. One change, Fisher is in for Tickner,” he said.
India vs New Zealand 3rd ODI playing XIs
New Zealand: Will Young, Tim Seifert, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Matthew Fisher
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh
