David Leggat: Bowlers must clamp on brutal and brilliant batting

Eight times out of 10 a score of 344 wins a one-day international.

On most days a New Zealand opener hitting his maiden ODI hundred off just 72 balls would warrant more than a passing footnote.

But these are not normal times and New Zealand are not facing bog-standard opposition.

New Zealand's reputation has always been that of tough, determined cricketers hard to roll on their home pitches. They won the two Twenty20 internationals at the start of the tour. Confidence rightly rose a notch or two.

India's unflappable captain MS Dhoni was unfazed. Wait and see was his message in those early days.

Now New Zealand must win the last two ODIs at Hamilton tomorrow and Eden Park on Saturday just to square the series. Then come the three tests.

They are up against it. Their bowlers have been spanked in all three ODIs. Things began badly in Napier last week, but on Sunday afternoon in Christchurch it got out of control as India belted 392 for four, the most runs put up in an ODI in New Zealand and equalling the third highest score in a game involving test-playing nations in limited overs history.

Led by Sachin Tendulkar's wonderful 163 in 133 balls, India simply crushed New Zealand's attack with batting both brutal and brilliant.

Respectable deliveries sailed out of the park. India hit 18 sixes, equalling the world record for an ODI innings. The match total of 31 creamed the old world mark of 26.

In their worst moments, bowlers seemed to be sending the ball with a silent prayer attached that it would land in the right place, fearful of where it might end up.

Acting captain Brendon McCullum admitted there were moments the bowlers were in trouble.

"A few times I think they were a little bit lost, a little uncertain about how to restrict the aggression.

"Knowing if you even got it slightly wrong you were going to disappear probably played on their minds, but at the end of the day we weren't accurate enough and we got hurt."

Too often the bowlers offered up freebies. Finding the yorker length is a precise business. Get it slightly wrong and batsmen of this calibre will cash in.

Throw in a mix of knee high full tosses, half volleys or occasionally half trackers and Tendulkar, Virendar Sehwag - who missed out on Sunday - Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni and the blazing, unheralded lefthander Suresh Raina are like kids at a lolly scramble.

Yuvraj, a strongly built man with thunder in his bat, resembled a voracious eater let loose at the buffet table in Christchurch.

When New Zealand search for the positives from the match, they'll think of the final overs when Kyle Mills and Tim Southee gave India a fright. Okay, 58 runs is still a substantial margin but India clearly got twitchy.

Catches were dropped, medium pacer Munaf Patel completely lost the plot and was red-carded by umpire Rudi Koertzen for two high full tosses.

But they'll have seen that if they can put the squeeze on India, there could be some reward.

As for Ryder, his 105 was a stunning exhibition.

Another few overs of Ryder and McCullum - their 166 had taken only 131 balls - and the Indians would have been squirming; ditto when Mills and Southee hit out at the end.

And that's where New Zealand will have sensed some possibilities. But the bowlers need to get their radar working, follow the script and believe in themselves.

Because if they can't figure a way to put a clamp on India's batsmen, it won't matter much.