India defeated New Zealand by 4 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method on Saturday at Hnry Stadium in Wellington to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match New Zealand vs India ODI series. Pacer Gurnoor Brar took a career-best 4 for 30 to bowl the hosts out for 134, and the ICC match report confirmed KL Rahul’s unbeaten 26 kept India at 113 for 7 after 26 overs—four runs ahead of the DLS par score of 109 when rain ended the match.
The victory puts India one win away from clinching the ODI trophy with three games left to play. For New Zealand, the loss leaves no margin for error: Mitchell Santner’s side must win all three remaining fixtures to take the series.
Rain delayed the start in Wellington by an hour and reduced the contest to 47 overs per side before India captain Shubman Gill won the toss and chose to bowl. India’s seamers immediately exploited the pace and bounce on offer. Brar bowled 10 overs, including two maidens, to remove Will Young (6 off 17 balls), Tom Latham (7 off 22), Glenn Phillips (0 off 4) and Santner (31 off 38), earning Player of the Match honors.
Brar got plenty of support from the rest of the attack. Anshul Kamboj finished with 2 for 25 in eight overs, ending the innings on the final ball of the 41st over by bowling Blair Tickner at 135.2 kph. Spinner Axar Patel took 2 for 28 in nine overs with one maiden, Auqib Nabi claimed 2 for 31 in seven overs, and Arshdeep Singh conceded just 16 runs in a wicketless seven-over spell that included one maiden.
Daryl Mitchell was the lone New Zealand batter to pass 35, top-scoring with 55 off 104 balls with five fours and two sixes. Dropped by Gill on 21, Mitchell reached his half-century in 97 balls—his slowest in ODIs and his seventh fifty-plus score against India in 13 ODI innings—while sharing a 59-run sixth-wicket stand with Santner. No other batter reached double figures aside from Henry Nicholls (11 off 26), as Tim Seifert fell for a five-ball duck, Kyle Jamieson made 7, Nathan Smith scored 3, Tickner added 2 and Jacob Duffy finished 1 not out.
KL Rahul Holds Firm as New Zealand Pacers Strike Back
Chasing 135 in 47 overs, India stumbled to 47 for 4 in 12.5 overs against New Zealand’s fast bowlers. The Indian Express scorecard showed Duffy dismissing Gill for a golden duck at 4 for 1 in the second over before removing Virat Kohli for 7 off 7 balls to leave the visitors at 17 for 2 in 3.4 overs. Jamieson then dismissed Rohit Sharma for 23 off 28 balls (two fours, two sixes) at 39 for 3 in the ninth over, and Matthew Fisher removed Axar Patel for 7 off 17 balls.
Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul steadied the innings with a 39-run fifth-wicket partnership. Iyer top-scored for India with 30 off 46 balls, hitting four boundaries and a six, before Jamieson had him caught by wicketkeeper Latham with a short ball on the final delivery of the 20th over at 86 for 5.
With rain approaching, New Zealand nearly pulled ahead on the DLS sheet by taking two quick wickets in the 25th and 26th overs. Duffy had Naman Dhir (12 off 16) caught by Seifert on the boundary at 108 for 6 in 24.4 overs, and Jamieson had Kamboj (1 off 3) caught by Duffy at third man at 111 for 7 in 25.3 overs.
KL Rahul stayed unbeaten on 26 off 38 balls, striking two fours and two sixes, alongside Nabi (1 not out off 1 ball) when rain forced the players off after 26 overs. Jamieson (3 for 35 in 10 overs, one maiden) and Duffy (3 for 35 in seven overs, one maiden) led New Zealand’s bowling, while Fisher took 1 for 23 in four overs and Smith bowled five overs for 19 runs with one maiden. Umpires waited until the 10:00 AM GMT cut-off before officially abandoning play at 10:03 AM GMT.
While official ICC records, The Indian Express, The Times of India, India Today and Mint all recorded New Zealand’s total as 134 and India’s winning margin as 4 runs over a DLS par score of 109, the body text of one Hindustan Times live blog mistakenly stated India was chasing 133 with a three-run DLS advantage, even though its own headline and scorecard listed the 4-run win chasing 134. Mint’s opening summary also misstated the venue as Hamilton,though its live updates and all other outlets confirmed the match took place in Wellington.
Post-Match Reactions and Series Schedule
In the post-match presentation published by CricTracker, Gill said the surface was challenging and praised his bowlers for restricting New Zealand around 130 to 140, while crediting Brar’s pace and bounce. However, Gill criticized the late shots from Dhir and Kamboj just before the rain arrived, noting that losing two extra wickets when the team knew rain was coming looked poor and that dropping the game by four or five runs on DLS would have been a disaster. Brar said at the presentation that the extra pace and bounce in New Zealand suited his plan of bowling hard, shoulder-high lengths where batters look to pull.
Santner said at the presentation that the wicket was tricky and credited India’s new-ball bowlers for taking early wickets, adding that New Zealand’s total was slightly under par at the halfway stage before his bowlers fought back. Santner also reported that pacer Tickner had returned to the team hotel to be monitored as a precaution because of a recent concussion.
Saturday’s game was the second consecutive rain-shortened finish of the tour. On November 4 at Eden Park in Auckland, Virat Kohli hit 74 off 51 balls in a 113-run stand with Gill (37) as India chased a revised target of 143 in 22.4 overs to beat New Zealand by five wickets on DLS after bowling the hosts out for 185 in 40.2 overs. India also won the preceding five-match T20I series 3-2 between October 22 and November 1.
The third ODI is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10, at Seddon Park in Hamilton, starting at 3:00 PM local time (2:00 AM GMT / 7:30 AM IST). Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui will host the fourth and fifth ODIs on November 13 and November 15, followed by a two-match Test series opening November 19 in Wellington and November 27 in Christchurch.