Duffy blames the toss and the clock. New Zealand's 185 in the daylight says otherwise

India won the first ODI in Auckland by five wickets on DLS. New Zealand were bowled out for 185. Rain cut India's target to 143 in 32 overs, and they got there at better than a run a ball.

Afterwards Jacob Duffy, who took 3 for 49, had an explanation for the bigger pattern. On this tour, New Zealand have batted first five times, and India sent them in after winning the toss every time. New Zealand have defended a total once: the record 259 in the fourth T20I.

Duffy said the late starts were "definitely a factor." There's something to that. There's also a problem with it.

The T20Is started at 8pm local time, so blaming dew made sense there. The ODIs start at 3pm. On Wednesday, Duffy himself said the wind might have kept the moisture away. His argument shifted to the rain: it made the ball skid and took away the "tennis-bally bounce" India got in the first innings.

That's fair as far as it goes. A wet ball skids on and is easier to hit. But it only explains why chasing got easier. It doesn't explain the first 40 overs, when New Zealand batted in the afternoon on one of the bounciest pitches in the world and were all out in the 41st over.

New Zealand didn't lose because they couldn't defend 185. They lost because they made 185.

To his credit, Duffy didn't use conditions to take anything away from the bowling. He said India have "some big boys" in their attack and "used the bounce of the surface really well."

That matters because of what Gill said a day earlier. On the eve of the series, India's captain made the case for tall quicks, and Gurnoor Brar is one of the tall seamers India are trying before next year's World Cup in South Africa. Arshdeep and Gurnoor took four wickets between them with the short ball. Gill also bowled his three strike bowlers out by the 41st over. If you're chasing wickets, you don't save overs.

The most telling spell came from Kamboj, picked ahead of Mohammed Siraj. He came on in the eighth over, opened with a maiden and conceded 22 in ten overs. That equals the most economical ten-over spell by an Indian quick since Javagal Srinath's 3 for 13 in 2003.

Kamboj's attitude is easier to understand once you look back a month. On his ODI debut against West Indies in New Chandigarh, he went for 82 in nine wicketless overs, the third most expensive figures by an Indian on ODI debut. On a flat pitch the same hard length got hit. On a seaming one it was almost impossible to score off.

His reading of ODI cricket was sharp, too. With a new ball at each end, he said, the first 10-15 overs are made for swing. In T20 cricket the one ball goes soft after five or six overs. That's a bowler who has worked out why he's better suited to 50-over cricket than to 20-over cricket, which isn't how Indian seamers are usually picked these days.

Here's the other problem with blaming the pitch. In the same chase, Rohit Sharma was out for a duck trying to drive on the up. Gill batted with high control on the same pitch. Virat Kohli, a day short of his 38th birthday, made 74 off 51 balls.

He pulled Blair Tickner again and again, including for a six, and drove a tall bowler through the covers on the up just before the first rain break. His fifty came in 35 balls. The short ball eventually got him: he top-edged a pull to Seifert at deep backward square leg. By then he and Gill had put on 113 for the second wicket, and the game was effectively over.

Earlier, he'd also dived low to his right in the cordon for a one-handed catch off Kamboj. So much for the age questions.

Duffy is right that batting second has been the better option on this tour, and India have won the toss every time New Zealand have batted first. Even so, "we lost the toss" can't explain getting bowled out in the 41st over in the afternoon.

New Zealand's problem isn't the moisture. Their World Cup hopefuls, Seifert, Will Young and Henry Nicholls, were all out top-edging short balls. Duffy promised that New Zealand will "come hard" at India, and the short ball he said worked late on is the place to start. But the way to stop worrying about defending totals is to post bigger ones. The toss doesn't do that for you.

India lead the five-match series 1-0.