India lost their way at McLean Park because they played scant regard to the basics. They went for style and flourish over substance and paid a heavy price. The New Zealand batsmen played it just right on the first batsman-friendly wicket of the series, concentrating on the ones and twos and waiting for the loose delivery to put away. India's batsmen, by contrast, thought big and came up short, with the notable exception of Virender Sehwag.

There was enough assistance for the bowlers to ensure a fairly high proportion of dot balls (160 out of 269 for India and 169 out of 304 for New Zealand) but the hosts won because they were far better at running between the wickets. India's running between the wickets was as much a joke as their fielding and it cost them in the final analysis. New Zealand ran 81 singles and 35 twos, 151 of the 226 runs scored off the bat (66.8 percent). India's response was 67 singles and only 18 twos, only 103 of the 202 runs (51 percent). Nathan Astle and Mathew Sinclair alone ran 100 in singles and twos to illustrate how much the Indian running lacked urgency.

The honourable exception was Sehwag, who ran 33 singles and 12 twos in his 108, while also finding the time to wallop nine fours and two sixes.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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