The third ODI between New Zealand and India at Seddon Park was abandoned on Tuesday without a ball bowled, which leaves India 2-0 up with two games left and guarantees they cannot lose the series. Shubman Gill had won the toss and chosen to bowl, but rain returned just as the covers were coming off for a 40-overs-a-side game, PTI reported.
The washout also ends Gill’s part in the series. He, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj and Mohammed Siraj now join the Test squad in Wellington, and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer leads a changed side in the last two games at Bay Oval in Tauranga.
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Key points
- The third ODI at Seddon Park was abandoned without a ball bowled after Gill won the toss
- India lead 2-0 with two games left, so New Zealand can at best draw the series 2-2
- Gill, KL Rahul, Kuldeep, Kamboj and Siraj join the Test squad; Shreyas Iyer captains in Tauranga on 13 and 15 November
How the day was lost
The toss had already been pushed back several times before it finally took place at 9am IST, 4:30pm local, with the game cut to 40 overs a side, Outlook’s live coverage showed. Gill won it for the third match in a row and named an unchanged XI.
Then the rain came back. The umpires did not wait for the cut-off for a 20-over game: they called it off with at least 70 minutes still in hand, according to PTI, and the end came shortly after 11am IST.
A series India have barely batted in
This has been a one-day series in name only. India have faced 48.4 overs across three games, less than one full innings, and won both completed matches under DLS:
| Match | New Zealand | India | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st ODI, Auckland | 185 (40.2 overs) | 143/5 (22.4 overs, revised target) | India won by 5 wickets (DLS) |
| 2nd ODI, Wellington | 134 (41 overs) | 113/7 (26 overs) | India won by 4 runs (DLS) |
| 3rd ODI, Hamilton | No play | Abandoned | |
Virat Kohli’s 74 off 51 balls in the Eden Park chase is still the only real innings either side has had time to build. In Wellington it was Gurnoor Brar’s 4 for 30 that kept New Zealand to 134.
Iyer’s side for Tauranga
The departures take out India’s captain, their wicketkeeper and the bowler who did most to win the opener: Kamboj bowled his 10 overs for 22 at Eden Park. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan are set to come into the XI, PTI reported, and Kishan is the obvious replacement for Rahul behind the stumps.
That leaves Arshdeep Singh, who took four wickets in Auckland, at the head of the seam attack with Brar and Auqib Nabi, plus Axar Patel as the senior spinner now that Kuldeep has gone too.
New Zealand are short as well. Lockie Ferguson is out of both remaining games with a calf tear and Blair Tickner’s seven-day concussion stand-down rules him out of the fourth ODI, as we covered in the Hamilton preview. Matt Henry, recovering from a quadriceps tear, was targeting the fourth game.
What happens next
The fourth ODI is on Friday, 13 November, and the fifth on Sunday, 15 November, both at Bay Oval with a 3pm local start, 7:30am IST. The first Test follows at the Basin Reserve from 19 November, where India’s preparations are already complicated by Rishabh Pant’s fitness.
Market watch
- With the series result settled for India, New Zealand need both Tauranga games to draw it 2-2, so series prices now hang on two matches against a weakened India side.
- Gaikwad and Kishan have had no ODI cricket on this tour, so their run lines on Friday come with little recent evidence.
- Gill won all three tosses and bowled first in Auckland and Hamilton; whether Iyer does the same at Bay Oval is one for the toss predictions.
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Pradeep Singh
Pradeep Singh is a cricket betting expert with 17+ years of experience. His work is in The Times of India, Hindustan Dainik, and Dainik Bhaskar, covering cricket betting and gambling news.
At cricket-betting.net, he is our in-house expert, writing betting guides, match analysis, and news about cricket betting markets.
