Auckland: New Zealand wrapped up the one-day series against India with veteran Ross Taylor and debutant Kyle Jamieson combining to set up a 22-run win in game two in Auckland on Saturday.
The pair put on an unbeaten 76-run partnership following a middle-order collapse to get New Zealand through to 273.
India were dismissed for 251 with nine balls remaining in their innings.
New Zealand, who won the first match by four wickets on Wednesday, made a strong start in Auckland with Martin Guptill (69) and Henry Nicholls (41) putting on 93 for the first wicket.
Following Nicholl’s dismissal, Tom Blundell joined Guptill to get the total to 142 before seven wickets fell for 55 runs in 15 overs.
New Zealand had trouble negotiating the spin of Yuzendra Chahal (three for 53) and Ravindra Jadeja while Guptill was run out looking for a quick single.
In a comparison after 41.3 overs, New Zealand were 197 for eight and India 202 for seven.
But while the homeside were rescued by a flurry of boundaries from Taylor and Jamieson, the tourists were unable to assert the same dominance over the New Zealand attack.
Ravindra Jadeja and Navdeep Saini put on 76 for the eighth wicket but while Saini in only his fourth ODI contributed 45 off 49 deliveries, Jadeja was unable to maintain the same pace and his 55 off 73 balls only included two fours and one six.
The 274-run target set for India was not a daunting prospect on Eden Park with its short boundaries and when Prithvi Shaw smacked the first two deliveries of the innings to the boundary it seemed the tourists would wrap the match up quickly.
But after Mayank Agarwal was dismissed in the third over India struggled to regain momentum.
New Zealand pace bowler Tim Southee who was unwell and only played because his team had no other bowlers to call on, made history when he dismissed India’s talisman Virat Kohli for 15.
It was a record ninth time he has dismissed Kohli across all formats and moved him past England pair James Anderson and Graeme Swann who have claimed the Indian captain’s scalp eight times.
Because of his illness Southee was bowled out early and left the field after the 25th over with the figures of two for 41, having also dismissed Kedar Jadhav for nine.
With Kohli’s early dismissal India looked to Shreyas Iyer to lead them home.
The right-hander played his part until he reached 52, his second ODI half-century, when he lost his composure and tried to cut a Bennett delivery that was heading towards middle stump and succeeded only in nicking the ball through to the wicketkeeper.
The third and final match in the series is in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday.
— AFP
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