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Indian speedster Mohammed Siraj said the team environment is very good and that the Men in Blue will look to do well in the do-or-die contest against New Zealand in the upcoming third ODI on January 18.
Speaking during the pre-match conference ahead of the third ODI, Siraj opened up about doing well in both ODIs. Notably, India won the opening match of the series by four wickets and lost the second by seven wickets. "The team enviornment is very good. We won the first match and lost the second, but it's a do-or-die game, so it is a very good opportunity for us to do well in the third ODI," Siraj said. Siraj added that if the Indian team had grabbed the opportunity in the second ODI, the game would have had a different outcome. During the second ODI, Prasidh Krishna dropped a crucial catch of Daryl Mitchell, who went on to score a match-winning, unbeaten century while chasing a target of 285 runs. "We played good cricket in the first and second ODIs. As you can see in the first match, the bowling and batting departments performed very well. In the second ODI, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja formed a brilliant partnership. After that, Nitish Reddy also contributed very well. However, there was an opportunity where the catch was dropped. If the catch had been, then the result would have been different," Siraj said. When Siraj was asked about why Indian bowlers aren't able to dismiss Daryl Mitchell. The Indian speedster replied that the New Zealand batter has a game plan in mind, and Mitchell is scoring runs in the middle overs. "We tried our best to remove Daryl Mitchell, but as you can see, he is batting with a game plan in mind and is scoring runs in the middle overs. We will try out our best in the third ODI to dismiss Mitchell," the Indian pacer said. The three-match ODI series between India and New Zealand is levelled 1-1. The third ODI will be held at the Holkar Cricket Stadium. Squads: India Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Ayush Badoni, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel. New Zealand Squad: Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay(wicketkeeper), Michael Bracewell(captain), Zakary Foulkes, Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson, Jayden Lennox, Nick Kelly, Adithya Ashok, Josh Clarkson, Michael Rae. (ANI)
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