India vs New Zealand: Highs and lows of India during tours to Kiwi land

1. Tendulkar as opener

Though made his debut nearly five years ago, Sachin Tendulkar batted in the middle-order in ODIs till that fateful day - March 27, 1994 at Auckland. But a neck pain to regular opener Navjot Singh Sidhu opened the door for Tendulkar to bat at the pole slot and he made an immediate impression slamming 49-ball 82 with 15 fours and a six. It was the age when teams were looking to capitalize on the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs. Tendulkar fitted the bill for India perfectly and the rest, as they, is history.

2. India's ODI series win in NZ

The 2008-09 series started on a familiar note when India lost the two T20Is comprehensively to New Zealand. But a different India were seen in the park in the ODIs. In the first ODI, fifties by Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina helped India score a 53-run via D/L method and they hardly dropped the momentum. In the third ODI, Tendulkar made a quickfire 163 off 133 balls with 16 fours and five sixes and got ample support from Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni, who made fast fifties, as India made 392/4 and then bowled out the Black Caps for 334 to go 2-0 in the series. The second ODI ended as no-result. The 4th ODI saw Indian batting on its full glory. Chasing 271, India were 201 for no loss in 23.3 overs after Sehwag (125, 74 balls, 14x4, 6x6) and Gautam Gambhir (63, 67b, 6x4) scythed through Kiwis bowlers. When rain came the D/L par score was 118. With that win, India took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five match series and to top it, a few weeks later they won the Test series too.

3. The 2002-03 low

Before the 2003 World Cup held in South Africa, India toured New Zealand and struggled on green tops and it was aptly reflected in their scores of 108, 219, 108, 122, 169/8, 200/9, 122 in the seven matches. India lost the series 5-2. But Sehwag made a name for himself scoring 299 runs with two hundreds, only centuries from either side. In fact, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, India's top order, got 404 runs between them from seven matches. Surreal isn't it?

4. The Srinath effect

India's tours to New Zealand often ended in heartbreaks and heavy defeats. Often, they had to be satisfied with one-off victories or some sparkling individual effort. One such effort came from Javagal Srinath who always found the conditions and pitches in New Zealand to his liking since touring that nation between 1992 and 2003. The pacer has a haul of 43 wickets at 17 in New Zealand, best by any touring bowler. In fact, 18 of them came in 2002-03 when he amassed scalps at an astonishing strike-rate of 11. Mind you, Srinath was on his last leg as an international cricketer then.