India keep shaky New Zealand to 224

New Zealand 224 for 9 (Franklin 72*, Zaheer 2-31) v India

	In pic: Zaheer Khan didn't take long to find form after returning from an injury layoff

New Zealand's one-day woes continued into a ninth straight game as their batting failed to cope with moist early-morning conditions in Vadodara. Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel swung and seamed the ball all right, but New Zealand will look back at how unremarkable their response was. The openers gifted their wickets, the middle order went into a shell, and only a fighting 94-run eighth-wicket stand between James Franklin and Nathan McCullum rendered respectability to their effort.

New Zealand would have been far worse off had Kane Williamson and Scott Styris not survived plumb lbw shouts early on the innings. The two calls got New Zealand 42 extra runs.

Zaheer returned to the side to find a welcome mat laid out by Brendon McCullum, who guided a widish delivery straight to second slip. Martin Guptill, who looked the most at ease, ran himself out soon. He hit straight to Gautam Gambhir, who had placed himself halfway between the stumps and the 30-yard circle, and ran off for a suicidal single.

Between those two dismissals, Williamson set the template for the day. His front foot went across to the first ball he faced. It swing in down the leg side to be called a wide, but Williamson had fallen over trying to correct the movement. Neither Williamson nor Ross Taylor could get rid of that tendency during their short stays. Taylor's wicket, though, came in a tame fashion as he went to drive Zaheer. The shot was played away from his body, and an inside edge ensued.

Taylor's No. 4 position has been a matter of debate with observers stating he should take more responsibility and bat at No. 3. Williamson's lack of ability to counterattack only seemed to highlight the notion. For the third game running, Williamson got off to a slow start, and did little to hit Munaf off his plan.

Munaf loves to bowl back of a length, just outside off, and wobble the bowl slightly either way. However, he tends to get a bit rattled when somebody uses that predictability to come down and hit him. In this series, though, no one has come close to doing that. And once Williamson allowed Munaf to do what he wanted, that lbw call seemed a matter of time with the batsman regularly falling over.

Once again, Styris was the most purposeful New Zealand batsman. He might have enjoyed two strokes of good luck, but he showed some intent, hitting Ashish Nehra for two boundaries through the covers in the 17th over.

Modern captains tend to go into the containment mode once the 15th over ends irrespective of how many wickets they might have got. Gambhir, who had put New Zealand in, was refreshingly old-school. When he saw R Ashwin turn the first ball, he set Test-match fields for Styris and James Franklin. Yuvraj, at leg slip, soon came into action taking a sharp low catch to send Styris back. Daniel Vettori followed did a McCullum, guiding Yusuf Pathan straight to slip for another sharp catch for Yuvraj, who later moved to leg slip to get rid of Gareth Hopkins too.

Having fallen behind the over-rate, though, Gambhir omitted to use four of Zaheer and Nehra's overs. Facing part-time spinners on a pitch that had eased out a bit, Franklin and N. McCullum had little trouble building a partnership. For about 14 overs, the bowlers didn't go out of their way to take wickets, and the batsman didn't go out of their way to score runs. That shouldn't take away from the batsmen: they could only face what was being bowled at them.

In the 45th over, they called for the Powerplay, but Gambhir still kept back the two fast bowlers. It was almost as if he was not concerned at all by the growing partnership. Eight came off the first Poweplay over, nine off the second, 14 off the third, but Gambhir brought back the fast bowlers only for the last two overs.

Franklin, responsible for much of the damage in the Powerplay, ended up with his first ODI fifty.

We need to score big tomorrow: Gambhir

Jaipur: (PTI) India's stand-in skipper Gautam Gambhir today said the batsmen need to score heavily against New Zealand in the second one-dayer here tomorrow since the dew-factor would be crucial to the outcome of the match. "It's always good to score as many runs as possible in the sub-continent. If we are batting first 300 should be a good score but because of the dew factor, the more we score the better it would be for our bowlers," Gambhir said after a net session at the Rajasthan Cricket Association s academy. "It (dew) is a big factor but we also have bowlers who have the experience and who have bowled enough in dew conditions.

They will use some chemical and that will make a difference I think but there are certain things like toss and dew which are not in our hands," the skipper said. Asked about the wicket at the Swai Man Singh stadium, he said, "There is no point thinking about the team composition and wicket right now as we are going talk to the coach. The wicket looks dry and it might spin a bit if we bowl first." The Indian team trained for an hour and half today, with Yuvraj Singh doing the bulk of batting at nets. Coach Gary Kirsten was seen giving tips to the southpaw and also did some throw-downs with him. Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan did some batting practice against S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar and the local bowlers. But comeback man Ashish Nehra, surprisingly, did not bowl long enough. Quizzed on that, Gambhir said, "He is a very experienced campaigner and is bowling in good rhythm at the moment. Sreesanth has also bowled a lot in the Test series and doesn't need to bowl that long.

Moreover, in sub-continental wickets, batting is also very important." The men in blue are high on confidence after their convincing win over the visitors in the first ODI of the five-match series in Guwahati but Gambhir cautioned the side against complacency. "This is a young side and no one can afford to be complacent, we still have a long way to go. I don't there is place for anyone who is complacent in this team," the left-hander said. The left hander from Delhi, who will be leading the national team for only the second time in his career tomorrow, said he is enjoying the opportunity. "As far as captaincy is concerned, you need to take care of the entire unit. As I have always said a captain can be as good as his and this has been a very good team effort. I am enjoying the stint," Gambhir said. The skipper also reiterated that, with so many stars missing from the line-up, this is a 'great opportunity for the youngsters' to prove their mettle.

Gambhir excited by captaincy challenge

Gautam Gambhir has said he is looking forward to the "great challenge" of leading India in the one-day series against New Zealand which starts on Sunday in Guwahati. It's been a hectic season for the home side, and with the much-anticipated tour of South Africa coming up next month, India have rested many of their heavyweights - including regular captain MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh - for the first two ODIs against New Zealand.

Gautam Gambhir will captain India in the first two ODIs of the five-match series against New Zealand © AFP

"It's a dream, I'm really excited," Gambhir said a day ahead of his first match as India captain. "Hopefully I can live up to the expectation. It's a responsibility that has been given to the team [to deliver without the seniors]."

The World Cup is less than three months away, but Gambhir insisted his side was not looking too far ahead. "The most important thing right now is to win the series rather than thinking about giving an opportunity to all the [fringe] players," Gambhir said. "It's an international series and you are playing for your country."

Guwahati has traditionally been a low-scoring venue, though Gambhir was expecting more runs this time. "270-280 seems a good total because it starts spinning in the second half," he said. "It depends on how the wicket is. I don't think the toss will play a big role."

Gambhir also defended a couple of his middle-order batsmen, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, who have struggled in recent times. Yuvraj was dropped for the Asia Cup earlier this year, and has had several fitness concerns this year. "Yuvraj is the biggest match-winner India has ever had at his batting position," Gambhir said. "He already has a half-century to his name in the last one-dayer he played and has done decently in Dambulla (in a tri-series in August) as well. It's just about playing one big innings and then he is back to his best."

Raina has only one half-century in his previous 15 ODI innings, and had a torrid time in the Tests against New Zealand, scraping 26 runs in four innings. "You can't compare Test cricket with one-day cricket. He has done brilliantly in one-dayers," Gambhir said. "If you look at his last performance in ODIs, he won the match against Australia."

One of the newcomers in the squad certain to make his debut on Sunday is 26-Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who smashed an unbeaten 178 in the previous round of the Ranji Trophy. "Saha has done well in domestic cricket playing for Bengal. It's a good opportunity for him to show his talent," Gambhir said. "We all feel that he is a very good wicketkeeper, it's just about scoring some runs. It's all about carrying his momentum into international cricket. He is among the runs, so he will be feeling confident."

Gambhir defends bowlers, blames 'flat track'

By PTI

Chandigarh: Board President's XI captain Gautam Gambhir today defended his unimpressive bowlers and blamed a flat track for their lackluster show on the opening day of the warm-up match against Australia here. "Bowlers did a good job. There was not too much in the wicket. Our bowlers were up against a quality side and they had to bowl on a flat track.

Still, they did a decent job," Gambhir told at the post-match press conference. All the Indian bowlers proved quite expensive at a lifeless Sector 16 stadium pitch as Australia piled up a huge 319 for one on the first day, with the openers Shane Watson (115) and Simon Katich (104 retired hurt) producing a 232-run opening partnership. Gambhir also defended pacer S Sreesanth, who failed to impress, giving away 41 runs in his 13 overs without any success, saying fast bowlers take time to rediscover the rhythm after an injury lay-off. "He (Sreesanth) is coming back after an injury. You have got to give some leverage to him. He tried his best," Gambhir said. Sreesanth, who has been included in the first Test squad against Australia starting October 1 in Mohali, is trying to break into the playing eleven in the series opener after an injury lay-off. Australians had acknowledged that reverse swing played an important role when they toured India two years ago and now Gambhir said quality bowlers such as Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma's ability to move the ball would be crucial in the upcoming Test series.

"Zak (Zaheer) is going to be a big threat (for the Aussies)," Gambhir said. On Aussie plans to restrict Virender Sehwag during the series, Gambhir said every side comes up with their own strategies. Gambhir, who is also coming back after an injury lay-off, said he was looking forward to getting some practice in this match before the Mohali Test. Asked about the young bowlers in the side, he said, "When a bowler bowls against a quality opposition, it's always a good learning curve for him even if he fails to get a wicket." Meanwhile, centurion Watson said their strategy was to spend as much time in the middle as possible and get some runs under the belt before the first Test. "Big partnerships can always change the course of the game," he said. Praising Katich, Watson said, "He set up the scene for the whole tour." Watson also said that the wicket was "fairly flat" and "there was a softer area in the middle."