The New Zealand strategy has been clinically executed.
If they neutralized Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath by leaving anything he bowled outside off stump during their last tour Down Under, the Kiwis played the waiting game against the Indians at Mohali on Thursday and reaped the benefits.
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Off the 60 overs bowled by India, the Kiwis played as many as 298 dot balls and ran 33 singles. That's 331 balls for 33 runs. Off the remaining 29 balls, the Indian bowlers allowed the Kiwi openers 137 runs, including 19 fours, two sixes and a rich helping of extras.
99 of the 168 runs were scored on the on-side while only 22 were scored on the off, which means that the Indian bowlers pitched on middle and leg for a good part of the day.
The Indians managed to bowl just six yorkers and 23 over-pitched deliveries that cost them 38 runs.
Every bowler was guilty of bowling rank bad balls that were duly punished by the Kiwi openers. Vincent, in particular, smashed a four in almost every Balaji over.
Zaheer Khan was expensive in every spell though his bowling figures fail to expose that statistic. His five most expensive overs cost 11, 8, 8, 12 and 9.
Mark Richardson smashed him for three successive boundaries in the 44th over of the innings soon after the bowling combine of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble was broken.
Singh and Kumble bowled together unchanged between the 25th and the 43rd over of the innings. Those 19 overs cost India only 38 runs. the Indian bowlers conceded just three fours and a six, and bowled seven maidens.
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