India defeated New Zealand by 6 runs in a thriller at Kanpur to lift the series 2-1.Chasing India’shuge total of 338, the Kiwis were in the game till 47th over only to finsih on 331/7 from 50 overs as India pulled things back in last couple of overs.
Earlier, Kane WIlliamson won the toss and invited India to bat first. Despite losing opener Shikhar Dhawan early, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli added 231 runs for the second wicket. Rohit scored his 15th ODI ton while it was the century number 32 for Viratin his ODI career. Tim Southee, Adam Milne and Mitchell Santner shared 2 wickets each for the Kiwis.
With this century, Virat completed 9000 ODI runs. He is the fastest to get there as he achieved this feat in 194 innings. AB de Villiers, the fastest to the landmark, got there in his 205th innings. Kohli is the sixth Indian and 19th overall to pass 9000 ODI runs.
New Zealand in reply batted really well to get close to their target. After having lost Martin Guptill early in the innings, the skipper Kane Williamson(64) and Colin Munro(75) added 100+ runs for second wicket. Almost all batsmen got starts for the Kiwis as Ross Taylor made 39 and Henry Nicholls scored 37 runs. Tom Latham continued his impressive performance with the bat as he scored 52 ball 65 and nearly took his team to victory. The Kiwis were looking good till 47th over but the wickets of Nicholls and Latham in 47th and 48th over brought India back in the game. New Zealand fell short of the target by 6 runs ultimately as they lost the series 2-1 to India.
Rohit Sharma was named Player of the Match while the Kiwi left hander Tom Latham was named Player of the Series.
Match Summary:
India 337 for 6 (Rohit 147, Kohli 113, Santner 2-58)
beat
New Zealand 331 for 7 (Munro 75, Latham 65, Williamson 64, Bumrah 3-47, Chahal 2-47)
by 6 runs