New Zealand defend 260 to keep series alive

New Zealand 260 for 7 (Guptill 72, Williamson 41, Mishra 2-42) beat India 241 (Rahane 57, Southee 3-40) by 19 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Martin Guptill’s opening salvo, and canny bowling from Tim Southee and James Neesham in dewy conditions, ensured New Zealand forced the ODI series into a decider at Visakhapatnam. Having won their first toss of the tour in their eighth match, New Zealand, led by Guptill’s bruising half-century, tactfully exploited the field restrictions and ultimately finished at 260 for 7. The bowlers then frequently varied their pace and found equally good support from the fielders to throttle India’s chase.

Southee was New Zealand’s key figure with the ball, first having Rohit Sharma caught behind with a perfectly-pitched outswinger. He returned with the old ball and produced a double-strike to all but snuff out the chase; a ball after Manish Pandey holed out off him, he had Kedhar Jadhav pinned in front by a slower offcutter for a first-ball duck. Three overs later Hardik Pandya was caught at long-off, Tom Latham running to his left to pocket a smart catch. India were left needing 94 off 84 balls, with three wickets in hand. Axar Patel, who was promoted to No. 5, and Amit Mishra briefly rallied with a 38-run partnership for the eighth wicket, Dhawal Kulkarni and Umesh Yadav then added 34 for the last wicket, but the hosts were dismissed for 241 in 48.4 overs.

Neesham had produced a double-strike of his own, before ceding the stage to Southee. He dismissed Ajinkya Rahane for 57 in the 28th over and followed it with the bigger wicket of MS Dhoni. …

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