India's seamers bowled superbly in defence of a modest total of 209 Sunday to set up a 22-run win over New Zealand in the fifth one-day cricket international and a 3-1 win in the five-match series.
On the same pitch at Bay Oval on which India was bowled out for 89 only two days ago on the way to a defeat by 244 runs, India dismissed New Zealand for 187 in the 49th over.
Rohit Sharma (7) and Virat Kohli (5), jointly known as RoKo, were out cheaply again as India was dismissed in 42.1 overs after being sent in. Both were out in the first over of the India innings at the same venue on Friday.
It was left to Axar Patel and wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan to bolster a sputtering innings and both contributed 46 towards a total that at first sight looked inadequate.
India captain Shreyas Iyer bowled his four seamers in combination until the 36th over and they prevented New Zealand from gaining any momentum on a pitch that became harder to bat on under lights.
“I think in both the T20 and ODI series we were confronted with different conditions, the weather kept changing, we were faced with a lot of challenges and coming out on top is a great achievement,” Iyer said.
“Although we didn't get as many runs as we wanted, we still believed we could change the game at any point. I'm glad that each individual thought in the same direction.”
India won the T20 series 3-2.
Foxcroft top scores
South Africa-born Dean Foxcroft top-scored for New Zealand with 31 from 42 balls before giving debutant Yash Thakur his first wicket in one-day internationals.
Will Young (22) and Nick Kelly (24) made moderate contributions at the top of the order and Mark Bracewell (19) and Mitchell Santner (24) tried to speed the scoring later.
But New Zealand became almost becalmed in the face of accurate seam bowling through the middle of the innings, scoring at just over three runs per over. When Santner was out after batting with an injured hand, New Zealand's chances had largely faded.
Santner will undergo X-rays on Monday.
Arshdeep Singh took the early wickets of Young and Kelly, then returned to dismiss Kristian Clarke who made 16 as New Zealand's last recognized batter. He finished with 3-30.
Blair Tickner and Jacob Duffy put on 20 for the ninth wicket before Duffy holed on to Kohli in the deep.
RoKo subdued
Earlier, Rohit was out to a ball from the young pacer Matt Fisher that held up, pushing it directly to Foxcroft at short midwicket. Kohli was brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Tim Seifert, playing extravagantly at a ball from Fisher that took an outside edge and flew wide of Seifert, who claimed the catch diving full-length.
Rutaraj Gaekwad (18) was also caught by Seifert off an inside edge to a ball from Duffy.
Axar was in sight of a half-century when he played too hard at a ball from Bracewell that stopped and was chipped comfortably to Young at mid-on. Kishan holed out to deep third man off Duffy after hitting three fours and two sixes. Duffy took 3-60 and Santner 3-47.
New Zealand and India meet in the first of two test matches at Wellington starting on Thursday.
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