Cricket: Umpires play big part in limp NZ innings

New Zealand's cricketers ran foul of the umpiring at precisely the wrong stage of their Indian tour last night after electing to bat first in the deciding one-dayer at New Delhi.

The tourists were able to muster only 179 for nine on a fresh Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium pitch after being undone by the accuracy of India's Javagal Srinath-boosted attack, their own tactical shortcomings and three crucial decisions from umpires V.M. Gupte and S.K. Sharma.

In-form New Zealand opener Nathan Astle was adjudged leg before to a ball from Srinath which appeared to be missing leg stump, his partner Craig Spearman was caught in the slips off a clear no-ball from T. Kumaran, and Chris Cairns - just as he was breathing some life back into the innings - was given out lbw to another ball which seemed to be angled down leg side.

New Zealand's batting struggled for momentum from the first over, when Srinath repeatedly went past the outside edge of Spearman's bat, and things hardly improved much through the next 49 overs, with only Cairns (41 off 57 balls) and Roger Twose (47 off 94) threatening to turn the innings around.

Stephen Fleming collected a painstaking 22 off 60 balls before Sourav Ganguly put him out of his misery in the 22nd over, the New Zealand skipper exiting the five-match series with an aggregate of 75 runs at an average of 15.00, at the modest strike-rate of 52.81.

Fleming and Twose added 35 runs for the third wicket at a pedestrian pace, and it was not until Cairns arrived at the wicket that New Zealand looked to have a chance of eclipsing 150.

Cairns hit four fours and a brace of sixes in his innings, combining with Twose to put on another 66 for the fourth wicket, before swinging across the line at Robin Singh - India's best bowler - in the 36th over New Zealand have struggled to get their batting order right since an unfathomable reshuffle after the big win at Rajkot, so it was no great surprise to see Adam Parore striding to the wicket to join Twose, instead of Chris Harris or Scott Styris.

At a time when his partner had already set himself to bat through the innings, Parore inexplicably dug in for the long haul as well, until - with the New Zealand innings almost stationary - Twose lost patience and slogged out.

Srinath, recalled by red-faced Indian selectors after New Zealand tied the series at Guwahati, bowled three searching spells, while Singh continued to impress and offspinner Nikhil Chopra maintained the pressure through the middle of the innings.

New Zealand managed to score at four or more an over only briefly (when Cairns was at the crease) and for long periods were restricted to three or less, the ball reaching the boundary rope on just nine occasions, and clearing it twice.