The much-vaunted Indian batting line-up crumbled line pack of cards in the fourth ODI against New Zealand at Hamilton on Thursday.
Kiwi pacer Trent Boult played the role of the wrecker in chief to perfection by taking a five-wicket haul. India's total of 92 runs is their seventh-lowest score in ODIs.
India's woes were compounded by the absence of both skipper Virat Kohli, who was rested by the BCCI to better managed the work-load and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was struggling with a hamstring issue.
Boult, after the match, said that the Indian definitely missed their captain, but the fans rued the absence Dhoni.
Advertisement
The 37-year-old also missed the third match. Before the series, Dhoni had never missed an ODI match due to injury or illness in some six years.
Here are some reactions:
Dhoni is known as one of the fittest players, and he had missed only five ODI matches in the last 14 years before the second match – three matches (2013) due to a hamstring injury and one each against Ireland and South Africa in Ireland (2007) due to viral fever.
He has been in an imperious form of late. The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman won the man of the series award in Australia, then played a crucial knock in the second ODI against the Kiwis.
