Mount Maunganui, 15 November: Arshdeep Singh hit two sixes at No. 11 and then took 3/30 as India defended 209 to beat New Zealand by 22 runs in the fifth and final ODI at Bay Oval on Sunday. The win gave India the five-match series 3-1, a fortnight after they took the T20I series 3-2.
New Zealand were bowled out for 187 in 48.1 overs. Two days earlier, on the same ground, India had lost by 244 runs.
India lose the top order early
Matthew Fisher removed Rohit Sharma for 7 and Virat Kohli for 5, with Tim Seifert taking a sharp catch behind the stumps to send Kohli back. Seifert also held the edge that ended Ruturaj Gaikwad’s innings for 18 off Jacob Duffy in the ninth over. Shreyas Iyer, leading India for only the second time in ODIs, fell to a short ball before the score reached 100.
Axar Patel and Ishan Kishan made 46 each and kept the innings going, while Mitchell Santner (3/47) and Michael Bracewell (1/35) slowed the scoring in the middle overs. India were 183 for nine when Arshdeep walked out to join Mohammed Siraj. The last pair added 26, Arshdeep scoring 14 off four balls, before India were all out for 209 in 42.1 overs.
“I love my batting. Even if I’m batting at eleven, I enjoy it,” Arshdeep said after being named Player of the Match. “But some people on my team say that I’m scared of the ball. But I take it. I create room.”
He said the value of those runs was clear to both batters. “Siraj told me that these runs will be very crucial. And we made sure we went above 200 and that was a little thought in mind: we had crossed a small milestone there and had some runs to bowl at.”
Bowlers stick to their plans
Siraj struck first, removing Seifert for 14 with the score on 26, and later dismissed Finn Allen. Arshdeep bowled his full 10 overs for 30 runs and three wickets. Dean Foxcroft top-scored for New Zealand with 31, and Nick Kelly and Santner made 24 each, but nobody stayed in long enough. Axar finished it by dismissing Duffy and Blair Tickner.
“We were very disciplined with our areas and we didn’t let go of that thing even when we were not getting the results, we were not getting the wickets,” Arshdeep said. “But we kept bowling that and eventually got the results and yes, we won.”
What the captains said
Iyer said the team had to deal with different conditions on the tour. “Ecstatic. I think both the series T20 and ODI coming over here, we were provided with different conditions,” he said. “Definitely if you see the whole series, it wasn’t a series for batsmen.”
Santner, nursing a sore hand, felt his side were not far off. “I think if we had taken each partnership a little bit longer, we would have won that game,” he said. “You look at the scoreline 3-1. I think it was closer than that.”
Gurnoor Brar was named Player of the Series for his bowling.
How the series went
India won the first two matches under the DLS method, by five wickets in Auckland on 4 November and by four runs in Wellington on 7 November. The third game in Hamilton on 10 November ended with no result, and New Zealand won the fourth by 244 runs. The Test series starts in Wellington on 19 November.
More from the Indian cricket team.