One win in eight: why Seddon Park is a hard ground for India's ODI side

The third ODI between New Zealand and India is on Tuesday 10 November at Seddon Park in Hamilton. Play starts at 3:00 PM local time, 7:30 AM IST, so for most fans in India it is a working-day breakfast match. The toss is around 7:00 AM and a full game would end near 3:00 PM IST.

A ground with a long memory

Seddon Park is an old-style New Zealand venue, with grass banks instead of stands and a short walk from the centre of Hamilton. It is small, and it has seen some very high totals. It has also produced one of India's worst days in one-day cricket.

Across all their ODIs against New Zealand there, India have won once, lost six times and had one washout. The win came in March 2009, when Virender Sehwag hit 125 not out from 74 balls and India were 201 without loss in 23.3 overs before rain ended the game. That result sealed India's first ODI series win in New Zealand.

The bad days

The worst came on 31 January 2019. Trent Boult took 5 for 21 in heavy swing, India were bowled out for 92, and New Zealand won with 212 balls left. A year later the problem was the other way round. In February 2020 India made 347 for 4, with Shreyas Iyer scoring his first ODI hundred, and still lost because Ross Taylor made 109 not out from 84 balls. The last visit, in November 2022, was washed out.

What could be different this time

India will at least know the pitch. They played the fifth T20I on the same square only nine days earlier, so the batters have a fresh read of how the ball behaves under lights. Shubman Gill leads, with Iyer as vice-captain, and both Iyer and KL Rahul have made runs here before.

The squad has a selection puzzle. Prasidh Krishna is out of the series and Nitish Kumar Reddy plays only the first ODI, which leaves India without a seam-bowling all-rounder. They can bat deep with Axar Patel and Naman Dhir, or add a third seamer. The 2019 collapse suggests Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh with the new ball could matter as much as anyone with the bat.

For New Zealand this is the last ODI for the Test players before they head to Wellington, so Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell and Kyle Jamieson may want to sign off well.

Every past result, the IST session table and both squads are in a Hamilton ODI preview that lists every India game at Seddon Park.

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