Gambhir leads India to easy win

India's stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cracked an unbeaten 138 off 116 balls to lift the hosts to an eight-wicket win over New Zealand in the second one-day international on Wednesday. The left-hander's eighth one-day century enabled India to surpass New Zealand's challenging 258-8 with seven overs to spare in the day-night match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur.
The emphatic victory gave India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the hosts had won the first game in Guwahati on Sunday by 40 runs. Gambhir put on 87 for the first wicket with Murali Vijay (33) and 116 for the second with Virat Kohli, who followed up his century in Guwahati with a fluent 64. The skipper hit 18 boundaries in his fluent knock.
Gambhir led India as regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was rested for the series along with other senior players including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth set up the win by grabbing four wickets after Gambhir won the toss and elected to field in good batting conditions. Martin Guptill top-scored for the Black Caps with a dour 70, before Scott Styris boosted the total with 59 off 54 balls.
Sreesanth removed Styris and skipper Daniel Vettori (31) off successive balls in the 46th over, after the pair had put on a quickfire 58 for the fifth wicket. Nathan McCullum prevented a hat-trick as New Zealand recovered from a middle-order slump to smash 88 runs in the last 11 overs. Guptill, who opened the innings, crawled to his half-century in the 30th over. The Black Caps opted for the batting powerplay in the 35th over, with the total at 137-3, and took advantage of the field restrictions to hit 33 runs in the next five overs.
Guptill fell in controversial circumstances when Indian umpire Sanjay Hazare declared him caught behind off Ravichandran Ashwin even as the wicket-keeper appealed for a stumping. New Zealand were without the injured duo of Brendon McCullum and Daryl Tuffey, but Vettori was back after missing the first game with a back injury. The third match will be played in Vadodara on Saturday.

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Scoreboard New Zealand:

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M. Guptill c Saha b Ashwin        70

J. How c Saha b Sreesanth          5

K. Williamson b Patel             29

R. Taylor c Kohli b Pathan        15

S. Styris c Saha b Sreesanth      59

D. Vettori b Sreesanth            31

G. Hopkins not out                11

N. McCullum run out               12

K. Mills b Sreesanth              13

T. Southee not out                 2

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Extras: (lb5, w6)                 11

Total: (for 8 wkts, 50 overs)    258

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Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-64, 3-96, 4-161, 5-219, 6-219, 7-242, 8-256.
Bowling: Nehra 9-1-45-0, Sreesanth 9-1-47-4, Patel 8-0-34-1 (w2), Ashwin 10-0-52-1 (w1), Yuvraj 9-1-48-0 (w3), Pathan 4-0-23-1, Raina 1-0-4-0.

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India:

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M. Vijay b Vettori                33

G. Gambhir not out               138

V. Kohli c Taylor b McKay         64

Y. Singh not out                  16

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Extras: (w8)                       8

Total: (for 2 wkts, 43 overs)    259

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