Jacob Duffy said that the late starts in the ongoing India tour of New Zealand are "definitely a factor" in the teams' inability to defend totals. India started the five-match ODI series with a comfortable win in Auckland after bowling out New Zealand for 185. With rain affecting the chase, India got to their revised target of 143 runs in 32 overs at a better than a run-a-ball. That marked the fourth instance out of five times on this tour that New Zealand failed to defend a total. While the T20Is began at 8pm local time, the ODIs start at 3pm.
"Everyone wins the toss and bowls first for a reason," Duffy, who took 3 for 49 at Eden Park, said. "I'm not saying it's impossible [to defend], don't get me wrong. It's not like we're giving up as soon as we've lost a toss. But as soon as you get a little bit of moisture in the wicket - I thought tonight there was a bit of wind around, and we actually might not [get that moisture] but I guess the rain sort of adds that moisture that the dew would have otherwise.
"When it does skid on like that, it sort of takes away the tackiness and that sort of tennis-bally bounce we saw in their innings, which that's what I thought made the ball [skid]."
On all five occasions that New Zealand have batted first, India won the toss and sent New Zealand in. The only time when New Zealand successfully defended a total was in the fourth T20I, when their record 259 proved to be too much for India.
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Duffy said a total of 185 was "never going to be enough" at Eden Park. India's quicks Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar and Anshul Kamboj combined to take all nine wickets grabbed by the bowlers - the other was a run-out - and Duffy said the India fast bowlers "hit the seam and extracted that bounce". On the even of the first ODI, India captain Shubman Gill had stressed on the importance of playing tall quicks, and Brar is among a few tall fast bowlers whom India have been trying in the lead-up to next year's ODI World Cup.
"Obviously, I think they bowled really well. I think they've got some big boys in that bowling tech, and they used the bounce of the surface really well," Duffy said. "So, yeah, they did that well, and we probably just weren't at our best with the bat to start with, and then pretty tough to defend 180 [185], and then, you know, they can just come hard like that and just knock a few off pretty quick."
Despite a low total to defend, New Zealand got India five down, with three back-to-back wickets after a rapid 113-run second-wicket stand between Gill and Virat Kohli. Although Duffy said getting those wickets were "probably a little bit too little, too late", New Zealand still left with "things to gain".
"We showed our intent for the series. We're not going to back down," Duffy said. "We're going to come hard at these guys and show what we've got. In this situation, the short ball seemed to work a little bit, so that was the option to put our stamp on the series, I guess."