India vs New Zealand, 2nd ODI highlights: With unbeaten 131, Daryl Mitchell guides NZ to 6-wicket victory

How many times have we see Jadeja make a mistake in the field? Well, we have seen it happen twice off consecutive deliveries now, far more than anything he has copped in the last 10 years probaboy. Kuldeep Yadav bowls the 36th over, Young hits him for four off the first and second balls. The second of those is smashed right at Jadeja at backward point. But the bounce was awkward for him and it went right through him and to the boundary. Then a nearly suicidal single but Jadeja's throw from backward point is a bad one. Mitchell then gets too far under the ball while trying to mow it out of the ground. Goes high up in the air and Prasidh runs left from long on. It pops right out of his hands.

New Zealand need 85 to win from 84 balls at the end of that over.

Unlike Mitchell, Young brings up his half century by perfectly carving the fourth ball through point. That's his first half-century in 12 innings. He just loves playing India. Young gets to his half-century in 68 balls.

New Zealand 134/2 in 28 overs, need 151 to win from 132 balls

The partnership between Mitchell and Young has crossed 70 and well, India need a wicket pronto. Prasidh Krishna is coming back for a spell. Young had miscued the second ball of the 25th over by Kuldeep but it didn't travel to long off.

All right, here comes Ravindra Jadeja to bowl the first over of spin. India have their noses slightly ahead but they have their job cut out. In the middle for the Kiwis are the in-form Daryl Mitchell while Will Young is at the other end. The former in particular has caused a lot of damage to the Indians, most recently in the previous ODI itself.

New Zealand neeed 221 to win from 35 overs

All right, Prasidh Krishna replaces Siraj in the 11th over and then comes NKR in place of Rana in the 12th. Siraj and Rana bowled five overs each. Siraj has figures of 0/16, Rana finishes on 1/17.

New Zealand 40/1 in 11 overs

Rana had induced an edge off the first ball but it didn't quite carry to Rahul. The second ball angles into middle stump, Conway hangsm out his bat defensively, it flicks his pads and hits the off stump. Rana points at Gill and celebrates.

Conway b Harshit Rana 16 (21)

NZ 22/1 in 5.2 overs

Mohammed Siraj to bowl the first over for India. Devon Conway on strike with Henry Nicholls at the other end.

Rahul finishes it off with a four. He walks back unbeaten on 112 off 92 balls. It was a full delivery outside off from Foulkes, Rahul reached for it, trying to work it square but it takes an edge and pops behind for a four. Rahul continues to be India's man for the crisis times. Since the start of last year, no one has scored more runs than him un the last nine overs of an ODI innings. He has scored 283 runs in this period and maintained an incredible strike rate of 140.09.

He has been brilliant today, leading the way in stopping India's charge at the start of those middle overs. The pressure built by his dot balls allowed his teammates to pick the wickets.

Rana c Bracewell b Lennox 2 (4)

India 256/7 in 47.2 overs

India have probably done much better than what they thought they could get around the time that they were being squeezed in the middle overs. Four more runs to get to 250 and 280 looks quite realistic, maybe even 300 if they get a real move.

Rahul on 81 off 76, Reddy on 20 off 20.

India 246/5 in 46 overs

He has ground his way to a half-century in 52 balls. It comes from a four, with Rahul's attempted cover drive ending up going past third man off an edge for four. Well, he is India's crisis man and he is playing a crisis innings today. The crowd has reserved their biggest noise for Kohli and Rohit so far but now they all rise up to cheer Rahul. They know how valuable this knock is.

India 199/5 in 40 overs

Foulkes bowls his seventh over in the 36th and his first ball is wide and back of a length, Rahul sends it off the back foot through cover point for four. Conway tried to slide and save it with his feet for some reason, the ball ends up rolling to the boundary cushion under him. Third ball dug in shortish but once again, it stays low, not much pace and Rahul has enough time to position himself and swivel away behind square for four. A single after that, Rahul on 33 off 41, Jadeja on 23 off 39.

India 174/4 in 36 overs

Shackles broken at long last and it is KL Rahul who does it. Phillips tosses up the first ball of the 28th over outside off, Rahul jumps down the track and smashes it past mid-off for four. Exquisite footwork, which is what made that shot possible. He takes a single next ball, then a single for Jadeja off the fifth.

Rahul on 10 off 15, Jadeja on seven off 17.

India 135/4 in 28 overs

Well the the dot balls are wreaking havoc here on India. Just four runs in the last 14 balls and Kohli chops the third ball of the 24th over on to his own stump while trying to play it fine. Pin-drop silence now in Rajkot, the Indians are in dire straits here.

Kohli b Clarke 23 (29)

India 118/4 in 23.3 overs

Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli taking their time with New Zealand sending spin from both ends. Jayden Lennox bowled his fifth over in the 18th and both batters got a single each. Then captain Bracewell bowled his first over, four singles in it.

Kohli on 17 off as many, Iyer on four off seven balls.

India 106/2 in 19 overs

Jamieson brought back for the 15th over, probably with Kohli in mind but he only gets Gill this time. Gill was cut in half second ball, missing the flick as it jagged back into him. The ball went just over the stumps. He slashes the last ball through cover for four and that gets him to 51 in 47.

India 87/1 in 15 overs

Rohit tries to break the shackles and perishes. Kristian Clarke strikes in his third over. Second ball of the over, cross-seam length delivery, Rohit tries to send it over cover, ends up hitting it straight to the fielder there.

Rohit Sharma c Young b Clarke 24 (38)

India 70/1 in 12.2 overs

Rohit with boundaries off consecutive balls against Jamieson in the seventh over, Foulkes then gets hit for four when he provides some width again fifth ball of the eighth. The sixth ball is back of a length on leg, Gill sends it over deep fine leg for the first six of the match.

That's 33 runs now in the last three overs. Gill on 21 off 25 balls, Rohit on 20 off 23 balls.

India 43/0 in 8 overs

Foulkes continues for the fourth over, his second ball was wide and short. The first bad ball from either Kiwi pacer today really, and Gill is on to it like a rash. He plays it late through backward point. No runs at all after that though.

India 6/0 in 4 overs

Rohit Sharma, in keeping with how he has played off late, chooses to stay inside his crease, not moving his feet too much and choosing to just absorb those six deliveries. Jamieson kept it nice and tight as well, not giving the former India captain any loose deliveries.

However, Arshdeep Singh will continue to sit out for Prasidh Krishna, which is a strange call indeed. Hopefully the aim is to keep Arshdeep rested for the T20Is. Nitish Kumar Reddy will certainly be a major part of India's plans for the 2027 World Cup in South Africa and he is not really a regular in the T20 squad. High time he started getting consistent chances in some format.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

New Zealand: Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay(w), Michael Bracewell(c), Zakary Foulkes, Jayden Lennox, Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson

He is 37 years old and yet, such is his form at the moment that one could argue that India's ODI batting lineup is back to revolving around Virat Kohli, as was the case before the pandemic when he was scoring centuries for fun in ODIs and Tests. What has probably been slightly different about him at the moment compared to those heady pre-pandemic days is probably the fact that Kohli has been almost consistently trying to accelarate early in his innings off late.

This will be the fifth men's ODI to be hosted by this venue and India have won just one of the last four. The last game to be played here was the third ODI against Ausralia on September 27, 2023 and the latter won that match by 66 runs.