Avenging their 5-0 humiliation in the T20I series, hosts New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash against India in the ODI series with a five-wicket win in the final match at Mt.Maunganai on Tuesday, 11 February.
Chasing 297, the Kiwis reached their target with 17 balls to spare. Colin de Grandhomme took the hosts home with an unbeaten 58 off 25 balls, along with skipper Tom Latham, who was batting on 32 off 34 balls
Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal justified his place in the ODI side, picking up three crucial wickets to bring India back into the match after the New Zealand openers put up a 106-run stand
Chahal got the first breakthrough, sending back Martin Guptill on a 46-ball 66 with a beauty that clipped his off stump. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson was next. Playing his first match of the series after an injury ruled him out, Kane too lost his wicket to Chahal, out on 22.
Chahal’s latest victim was all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who was caught at mid-wicket for 19. Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja were the other two bowlers to be among wickets.
While Ravindra Jadeja struck, Ross Taylor out for the first time in the series - on 12 off 18. Just the next over, Shardul Thakur and KL Rahul collaborated to stump opener Henry Nicholls on 80.
India’s innings was helped along by KL Rahul’s 112 with Shreyas Iyer's 62 even as Rahul’s 107-run partnership with Manish Pandey was India’s most lucrative of the day.
Rahul’s century, his 4th in ODI cricket, made him the first Indian wicket-keeper to post a ton in ODIs in NZ.
For New Zealand, Hamish Bennett –who is making a comeback to the Kiwi side during this India tour– was the best bowler, picking 4 wickets for 64 runs. He in fact took two wickets off back-to-back balls, sending back KL Rahul and Manish Pandey in the 47th over.
New Zealand had won the toss and put India into bat first and after just 12.1 overs, the visitors were 62/3 with Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Prithvi Shaw all back in the hut.
In just the third over of the day, Kyle Jamieson who made his debut in the 2nd ODI, picked the first wicket of the match- sending back Mayank Agarwal on 1. The Karnataka batter, making his ODI debut in the series, was castled on the third ball he faced.
Virat Kohli then joined Prithvi Shaw out in the middle and while he did start with a six against Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett got the better of the Indian captain who was caught at third man on 9.
Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw’s partnership lasted 30 runs before the young opener was caught short of his crease while taking a run, out on 40 off 42 balls.
KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer then staged a solid fightback, their fourth wicket partnership adding 100 runs to the tally.
Iyer scored his first fifty of the series, to follow the century he made in the second ODI. He hit two back-to-back boundaries off Jamieson in the 26th over to reach his 8th ODI half century. However, James Neesham ended his stand on 62 in the 31st over.
Manish Pandey is playing the match in place of Kedar Jadhav and added 107 runs for the fifth wicket with KL Rahul before the two fell on the 4th and 5th balls of the 47th over to Bennett.
Ravindra Jadeja then added 16 runs with Navdeep Saini as India posted 296/7 in their 50 overs.
NZ Won The Toss
Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson is back for the game, returning from an injury and takes up Tom Blundell’s spot. They’re also playing Mitch Santner in place of Mark Chapman. At the toss, Virat Kohli said he wanted to bat first anyway as he too announced one change - Kedar Jadhav is out and Manish Pandey is in.
Having already lost the three-match series 2-0, Team India are now looking at a consolation win in the final fixture being played at the Bay Oval.
While India were comprehensively beaten in the first ODI even after posting 347 in Hamilton, they came out with an improved performance with the ball, only to be undone because of the top-order failure in the second ODI in Auckland.
Playing XIs
India: Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, K.L. Rahul, Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Tom Latham, Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Colin de Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett
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