Match: India v New Zealand, 5th ODI
Date: 29 October, Saturday
Time: 4pm SGT/1:30pm IST/9am BST
Venue: VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam
TV Channel: In SIngapore, the live TV coverage of the fifth ODI will be on Star Cricket.
Live Streaming: Hotstar
Overview
India and New Zealand will battle in the final One Day International of the five-match series at the VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on 29 October.
The visitors, after having a horrid Test series, have revived themselves with a strong showing in the four ODIs played so far.
New Zealand, despite not having been consistent with the bat, have scraped through to victories in Delhi and Ranchi. Ahead of the decider on Saturday, the Black Caps would be more than happy to have an in-form Martin Guptill, who played one of his better innings of the series in the fourth ODI.
Tom Latham, who has had a consistent run in the ongoing tour, will look to land a knockout punch with a big knock. While Kane Williamson has been amongst the runs, Ross Taylor's batting woes in the middle order will be an area of concern for the visitors.
Tim Southee-led bowling unit has also performed well as an unit despite lacking impactful individual performances.
On the other hand, India's over-reliance on Virat Kohli has been exposed in the ongoing series. The failure of opener Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane has put more pressure on India's go-to-man.
In both Dharamsala and Mohali, Kohli played match-winning knocks and the absence of such impactful innings in the second and fourth ODI worked in favour of New Zealand.
Youngsters Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav have not been able to justify their selections despite getting enough time in the middle.Skipper Dhoni has been inconsistent as well except for his fluent 80 that came in a winning cause in Mohali.
New Zealand will look to exploit such weaknesses in the Indian unit for one last in the series on Saturday. However, Dhoni would be hoping for a better show from his openers on the big night. If they fail once again, the onus will be on the crisis man - Kohli - to light up Visakhapatnam on the eve of Diwali.
TV Schedule
Singapore: Star Cricket
India: Star Sports
New Zealand: Sky Sport
UK: Sky Sports 3
Team News
India
Possible XI: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav
New Zealand
Possible XI: Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi
