The Shreyas Iyer-led side bagged the series 3-1 to successfully complete the white ball leg of the tour to New Zealand after pocketing the preceding T20I series 3-2. The defeat brought an end to New Zealand’s streak of 11 consecutive series wins on home soil.
It will also give Shreyas some breather after his failures with the bat across the white ball series, as he managed just one fifty across nine innings here.
The target was a middling one – 210 – but New Zealand made heavy weather of the chase, partly due to Indian pacers’ superb lines and partly due to their own suspicious minds.
Arshdeep (3/30) and Siraj (2/50) were in top form as New Zealand were bowled out for 187 in response to India’s 209 all out.
The ball did a little more under the lights than in the first innings, and there was inherent bounce on the track as well.
But that did not justify the cagey approach of the usually free-flowing Kiwis openers Tim Seifert and Will Young.
Seifert was denied room, and his attempt to force the pace in Power Play off Siraj resulted in a simple catch for debutant Yash Thakur.
Young’s struggles came to an end when Arshdeep’s back of the length delivery forced an awkward pull from him. Ruturaj Gaikwad did not make any mistake in the field.
From that point, the Kiwis batters struggled to stitch a single, match-defining partnership. Soon, Arshdeep added the scalp of Nick Kelly and Siraj ousted the dangerous Finn Allen with a peach that came back a wee bit to hit the top of off stump.
The home team was 83 for four in the 22nd over. It could have been even worse for the hosts but Indians gave lives to both Dean Foxcroft and Michael Bracewell, who made 38 runs for the fifth wicket.
But India pegged New Zealand back with the wickets of Bracewell and Foxcroft in the space of two overs, reducing them to 119 for six in the 32nd over.
Skipper Mitchell Santner and Kristian Clarke kept the Antipodeans afloat with a 39-run stand for the seventh wicket, the biggest in this innings.
Santner clobbered spinners Axar Patel and Naman Dhir for a six each. But Dhir had the last laugh, dismissing Santner, whose slog sweep found Arshdeep in the deep.
It was an uphill climb for NZ from there.
Earlier, India’s batting too offered a similar tale of trepidation and the resultant anxious shot selection.
The tourists were expected to give a better account of themselves after getting bowled out for 89 in the fourth ODI at this venue a couple of days ago.
