New Zealand vs India, 2nd Match at Colombo, Jul 20 2001 - Ball by Ball Commentary

India's misery is over at last. This has been a dismal performance by the much fancied Indians. Except for Laxman, no batsman made a a fist of this match.

this has been a most spirited performance by the Kiwis, bouncing back after their disappointing loss against Sri Lankans

Dion Nash coming back after a long lay off, almost nine months out of international cricket, dealt the killer blows today, ripping apart the Indian middle order, Dravid, Badani and Sehwag were his victims. 6-0-13-3 is a wonderful spell indeed.

make no mistake, India was completely outplayed today. Nathan Astle played a brilliant hand earlier in the day making a defiant, unbeaten 117, his tenth ODI hundred.

Chris Cairns must be beaming at home, so must all the Kiwis be.

For India, Harbhajan Singh did well with the ball. Laxman was the only batsman to score some runs, 60 as a matter of fact, he struggled to make those runs, his footwork failing him time and again. The lack of footwork that is.

The pitch too played its part, keeping slow as the day progressed and keeping low at times. This is the second consecutive match on this track, something the officials must look at.

Chasing any score above 200 under the lights on a pitch not too condusive for batting was always going to be tricky.

`Yuvraj Singh who opened with Ganguly today is probably the only batsman who was a bit hard done by a decision that should have gone for him. rapped on the pads after the ball pitched a little outside the line of leg stump. was given out lbw

It is the margin of loss that must trouble the Indian think tank. massive 84 runs! and to add to it, the tail did not show any commitment at all as they didnt hang around and were bowled out with almost nine overs to go.

The run quotient might come into play, with all the monsoon clouds hanging over south Asia.

Nathan Astle is the Man of the Match!

Harris contributed his bit, which was three catches and three wickets! (8-1-23-3)

Kindly send in your opinions and views to comms@cricinfo.com. It has been a pleasure bringing you all the action live from Colombo. We hope to have your company on Sunday 22nd July 2001. It is a big day, Sri lanka will take on India in the day/night

match.

We will be be back with all the live action as it unfolds, starting 1430 local time, 1400 Hrs IST, 0830 GMT. So long.

India will have to play at a different level on Sunday against Sri Lanka