Mohammed Shami bowled brilliantly on Saturday as New Zealand were bowled out for 108 in 34.3 overs. India won the match by eight wickets with 29.5 overs to spare. The tourists had lost the first match by 12 runs in Hyderabad last week.
Batting first, New Zealand could only manage 108 runs with Glenn Phillips scoring 36 runs. Shami picked up three wickets, while Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar shared two wickets each.
India achieved the target by losing just two wickets in 20.1 overs. Skipper Rohit Sharma made 51.
New Zealand skipper Tom Latham said on the defeat, “Yes, batting up top and losing 5/1 was not a good performance. India was tight in their bowling and they deserve this win. The surface was two-paced with tennis ball bounce. We didn’t apply ourselves with the bat. We did not build out a partnership and the score was not enough. We haven’t adapted well to the conditions and that’s why we lost the series.”
Rohit Sharma said, “Bowlers have really stepped up today and in the previous games. You don’t usually see this type of seam movement in India. These guys have some serious skills, they work really hard and it’s great to see them being rewarded. We trained yesterday and the ball was nipping around under lights. We knew that if they had two fifty, it might have been challenging for us but that was the point of opting to chase. We batted first last game, so the idea was to challenge ourselves. I’m trying to change my game a bit now, have been trying to take the bowlers on and I think that’s important.”
Mohammed Shami was declared the Player of the Match