Iyer says 'no one threw it away'. Three ducks in six balls say otherwise

India needed 334 at Bay Oval. After one over they needed 334 with seven wickets left.

Matt Henry, playing for the first time in this ODI series after a head collision with Devon Conway, had Rohit Sharma caught for 0 off his first ball, bowled Virat Kohli for 0 off four, and trapped Shreyas Iyer lbw for 0 first ball. India were 0 for 3 after six deliveries. The over was a maiden.

It was only the second time Rohit and Kohli have both made ducks in the same ODI. The first was against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in 2010. India never got up. They were 9 for 4 when Ruturaj Gaikwad went for 5, and 89 all out in 26.4 overs. New Zealand won by 244 runs.

Iyer, leading India for the last two games of the series, gave two reasons. The first was the surface. He said there was "a huge difference in the first innings and the second innings in terms of wicket". The second was Henry, who he said bowled "in the right areas right from ball one", adding: "I think that was sensational."

Both are fair. Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl, so the pitch argument also cuts against his own call. And he admitted India had expected an easy night: "we thought that we would be cruising through the chase as well."

That line is the real story. New Zealand made 333 in 50 overs. India's six bowlers went at 6.66 an over. Iyer still thought the chase would be a cruise. Then the ball started moving in a strong wind and nobody had a plan B.

New Zealand's captain was relaxed. Asked about his own day, Santner said: "Yeah, pretty happy. Didn't have to bowl again, so pretty happy." He said his side had been thinking of "that kind of 360 mark" before Young's 125 and Seifert's 58 set up 333 from an 85-run opening stand in 12 overs.

Henry was even more matter-of-fact. "Great to be back. Obviously it's been a funny odd year," he said, and called the Conway collision "not ideal". His explanation of the first over was one sentence: "The wind was so strong and it was keeping things pretty simple."

He also gave India their due, calling them "a world-class outfit", and looked ahead: "it's one game and we've got another one coming up soon that hopefully we can level the series."

India's head coach took a harder line than his captain. Gambhir said it "isn't just this match": in the second ODI, chasing 135 in a rain-hit game India won on DLS, they slipped to 111 for 7.

His worry is next year. He called these conditions "closest to what we might get during the World Cup" in Southern Africa, and said the bigger concern was not the runs but "how quickly we got bundled out".

He also waved away the wobble-seam talk ("there was not much seam movement") and blamed footwork against Henry's "half-half length": "where we got stuck in the crease was the problem." And he pointed at the drops. Auqib Nabi found Will Young's edge twice early on, and Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan put down back-to-back chances. Young made 125.

By runs, this is India's second-heaviest ODI defeat, behind only the 245-run loss to Sri Lanka in Sharjah in 2000. It is their worst since then.

Three ducks from the top four in one over is not a blip you blame on a pitch. Rohit faced one ball. Iyer faced one. Kohli lasted four. Only Ishan Kishan (27 off 53) batted more than 40 balls. Axar Patel and Naman Dhir made 21 each, and that was it.

The context matters. India could not lose the series: they came to Mount Maunganui 2-0 up after the washout in Hamilton, so New Zealand can only draw it. But 89 all out in the last week of white-ball cricket before the Test series starts in Wellington on November 19 is a bad look, and Henry is joining New Zealand's Test squad for a training camp.

Iyer's line, "It's important to forget about this one", is the right message to the dressing room and the wrong one for everybody else. Even his own coach would rather talk about it.

Henry bowled a great over. But India walked out expecting a cruise on a pitch their captain says had changed, against the bowler Santner calls the world's best, in a strong wind. The fix is not forgetting. It is a top three that can see off six balls.

The fifth and last ODI is at the same ground on Sunday, November 15 (7:30 AM IST). India lead 2-1. Henry wants 2-2. After Friday, nobody should call it a dead rubber.