India vs New Zealand Score, 3rd ODI: India claw back as Arshdeep Singh, remove Phillips and Mitchell

Kuldeep strikes, NZ six down

We’ve seen this happen before, teams going after Kuldeep and damaging his statistics before he gets crucial late wickets. Now he gets Mitchell Hay lbw. We’ve talked about New Zealand using the sweep and reverse-sweep to telling effect, and this ball shows why it’s even more impressive against a bowler of Kuldeep’s style and quality. He excels at pitching within and finishing within the stumps, and if you miss – as Hay did with his reverse-sweep here – he inevitably gets you out lbw. This was an example of Kuldeep being able to be stump-to-stump even with his wrong’un.

New Zealand are 286 for 6 in 45.2 overs.

India is really hitting back here. Excellent offcutter-bouncer from Siraj. Well outside off without offering breadth for the uppercut, and gets up around shoulder height. Mitchell looks to hook from there, and he can’t control it, and Kuldeep takes a nice low catch running in from long leg. Mitchell is out for 137 off 131, his highest ODI score. All four of his hundreds against India have been scores from 130 to 137. The nervous 130s.

New Zealand is 283 for 5 in 44.1 overs.

Arshdeep breaks the partnership

India really, really needed a wicket, after conceding 52 runs in 24 balls from overs 40 to 43. And Arshdeep gets the breakout. Wide, full cutter, making Phillips reach for the ball to slash it away. He edges it to the keeper, and he’s out for 106 off 88 balls. New Zealand are 277 for 4 in 43.1.

Second ODI hundred for Phillips

Terrific innings. He’s moved through the gears so smoothly. He was batting on 21 off 36 balls at one stage, and he’s clattered 79 off his next 47 balls without ever appearing to over-exert himself, and got to his century in 83 balls. New Zealand are 266 for 3 in 42 overs.

And it’s travelling. After a sighter over each from Jadeja and Kuldeep, New Zealand hit them for three sixes across the 40th and 41st overs.

Mitchell. Century. Again.

Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell had a big partnership, India versus New Zealand, 3rd ODI, Indore, January 18, 2026
Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell have put on a 150 partnership • AFP/Getty Images
Second in a row, fourth against India, fourth in India. Can anyone stop this man? Gets there in 107 balls, in the 36th over, and enough time remaining in this innings for Mitchell to turn this into a really, really big one.

Not long after Mitchell’s landmark moment, Phillips tickles one off his pads to the fine leg boundary, off a full toss on the pads from Rana, to bring up the 150 partnership.

Busy innings from Phillips, just the three fours and a six so far. Gets to his fifty in 53 balls. New Zealand are 183 for 3 in 33 overs, and while the boundaries have started to come a little more freely in the last six or so overs, they’re still batting within themselves for the moment being.

Phillips on the move

Lovely, effortlessly chipped six down the ground off Arshdeep in the 28th over, then two fours off Reddy in the 29th – a straight punch followed by a top-edged pull over the keeper – and he’s now moved to 43 off 46 balls.New Zealand are 152 for 3 in 29.

Interestingly, only three overs of spin so far, all bowled by Kuldeep. No sign of Jadeja yet. The short boundaries and Reddy’s performance have prompted India to keep going back to their seamers.

Anyway, Jadeja has come on to bowl the 30th.

He’s been getting some heat of late, for his selection, for getting selected and batting too low, for getting selected and not bowling much, etc. Now he’s bowling a nice little spell that almost takes you back to New Zealand’s phalanx of medium to medium-fast dobbers in the 90s: stump to stump, on a length that lets him finish somewhere near the top of the stumps, with the keeper up. Just 17 runs in his first four overs.

You have to wonder, though, if some of this is down to New Zealand allowing him to bowl by not taking chances against him. Perhaps the ball is nibbling a little more off the surface than is maybe apparent to the viewer.

As I type this, Mitchell slugs him for a six over wide long-on at the start of his fifth over.

India’s formidable home record in ODIs will face a stern test when they take on a confident New Zealand in the series-deciding third match at the high-scoring Holkar Stadium here on Sunday, with the three-match contest finely poised at 1-1.

India have not lost a bilateral ODI series at home since March 2019, when Australia overturned a 0–2 deficit to clinch the series 3–2, including the decider in Delhi. That long-standing dominance, however, is now firmly under scrutiny.

For New Zealand, the stakes are just as significant. The Black Caps have visited India for bilateral ODIs since 1989 but have never managed to win a series on Indian soil. Given the balance of this contest and India’s recent vulnerabilities, this represents one of their strongest chances yet to end that drought.

India head coach Gautam Gambhir would be eager to avoid another setback at home during his tenure, which has already seen a few unwanted firsts. Under Gambhir, India have lost five Tests at home and also suffered their first-ever bilateral ODI series defeat in Sri Lanka.

India’s loss in the second ODI at Rajkot was shaped not by a single moment of brilliance but by New Zealand’s grip over the middle overs. Daryl Mitchell’s unbeaten century was a study in measured aggression, particularly against spin — an area where India have shown signs of discomfort in recent times.

Indore, with its short boundaries and flat pitch, offers even less margin for error. On a ground where totals can escalate rapidly beyond 350, lapses in the middle overs can prove crucial.

India’s struggles against spin remain a talking point. Despite their batting depth and power, the side has frequently found it difficult to rotate strike consistently through the middle phase. Those stalled periods have forced batters into riskier options, disrupting rhythm and momentum.

Will there be a RoKo show?

Much of the focus will be on Rohit Sharma, who has endured a lean run in the series. His ultra-aggressive approach at the top has defined India’s ODI blueprint in recent times, but repeated early exits have brought added pressure.

Virat Kohli, meanwhile, continues to be the axis around which India’s ODI batting revolves. With India’s next 50-over assignment for senior players likely to come in July during the tour of England, fans will be hopeful for another decisive RoKo partnership.

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