MOUNT MAUNGANUI — Arshdeep Singh gave India the response their batters could not provide, defending a modest total to turn a bruising defeat two days earlier into a series victory at Bay Oval.
The left-arm seamer took 3-30 from 10 overs as India beat New Zealand by 22 runs on Sunday, dismissing the hosts for 187 in pursuit of 210. India won the five-match one-day international series 3-1, with one game washed out. Earlier meetings are covered in our India vs New Zealand scorecard history.
It was a recovery in outcome, not a sudden correction of everything that had gone wrong. India were bowled out for 209 in 42.1 overs after slipping to 34-3, leaving their bowlers to protect a total built around matching scores of 46 from Axar Patel and Ishan Kishan.
Arshdeep removed Will Young for 22 and Nick Kelly for 24 before returning to dismiss Kristian Clarke for 16, according to Yahoo Sports’ completed-match report. New Zealand were bowled out in the penultimate over, unable to turn a succession of starts into the partnership that would have changed the chase.
Dean Foxcroft’s 31 was the highest score of the innings. That was the defining limitation of New Zealand’s pursuit: several batters made enough runs to keep the target reachable, but none stayed long enough to take ownership of it.
Arshdeep’s figures describe both sides of his contribution. Three wickets removed substantial pieces of the chase; conceding only 30 runs across his full allocation prevented New Zealand from collecting easy progress while those wickets arrived. He finished with eight wickets for the series.
The result was New Zealand’s first home ODI series defeat in seven years, according to the same report. For India, the significance lay in completing the job after Friday’s 244-run loss at the same ground had brought the hosts back into contention.
New Zealand had scored 333 in that fourth match before bowling India out for 89. Sunday did not produce a convincing batting rebuttal. Instead, India won with a different component of their side carrying the burden, and with a target small enough that every broken stand mattered.
New Zealand’s bowlers had again done much of what was asked of them. Jacob Duffy and captain Mitchell Santner took three wickets apiece, while the early dismissals of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli left India searching for another route to a defendable score.
Patel and Kishan supplied the most substantial resistance. Their identical returns did not transform the innings into a commanding one, but they kept India from repeating the scale of Friday’s collapse. The visitors still left 47 deliveries unused when their final wicket fell.
That distinction is important to the assessment of the victory. India’s bowlers made 209 sufficient on this occasion; the result does not make the early loss of wickets or the failure to bat through the innings disappear. The series was secured despite those shortcomings.
The first two matches had already placed India ahead, both victories coming in rain-affected contests. The third match was abandoned, leaving New Zealand needing wins in the last two games to draw the series. Friday supplied the first. Sunday’s chase denied them the second. For the earlier bilateral and tournament results, see our India vs New Zealand cricket timeline.
New Zealand also fielded a weakened side in the finale, with leading players preparing for the two-Test series that begins in Wellington on Thursday. That selection context qualifies the result without changing the task India completed: defending their total against the eleven selected to chase it.
The BCCI match centre confirms Bay Oval as the venue and India’s 209, although its retrieved score display remained on an earlier stage of New Zealand’s innings. The final result here is taken from the completed-match report rather than that delayed live display.
For New Zealand, a target of 210 offered the chance to erase a two-match deficit and finish level. By the end, Foxcroft’s 31 remained their largest individual contribution. No batter had supplied the innings that modest chase required.
