5th ODI: India beat New Zealand by 38 runs; win series 4-1

Wellington: After a decent batting performance, it was a calculative show by the Indian bowlers and as a result, New Zealand tasted defeat by 38 runs in the fifth and final One Day International match played here on Sunday.

Chasing 253, New Zealand openers Colin Munro (24) and Henry Nicholls (8) started on a positive note but pacer Mohammad Shami dismissed Nicholls in the fourth over. Munro and skipper Kane Williamson (39) played sensibly and punished the bad balls. But Munro was clean bowled by Shami in the 10th over.

Veteran batsman Ross Taylor (1) was also dismissed cheaply in the next over by Pandya.

New batsman Tom Latham (37) then joined his skipper in the middle and forged a crucial 67-run partnership and helped New Zealand to cross the 100-run mark. But soon, Williamson was sent packing by Kedar Jadhav in the 26th over when the scoreboard was reading 105.

Latham, who seemed good in the middle, was the next batsman to depart.

James Neesham (44) had to play till the end to give New Zealand some chance in the match but a sloppy run-out saw Neesham heading back to the pavilion.

Lower-order players Mitchell Santner (22), Todd Astle (10), Matt Henry (17 not out) and Trent Boult (1) tried to bring the game within New Zealand's reach but failed.

For India, Chahal took three wickets while Shami and Pandya plucked two wickets each. Buvneshwar Kumar and Jadhav also took one wicket each.

Earlier, Rayudu (90), Shankar (45) and Kedar Jadhav (34) stabilised the Indian innings and then Pandya made a quickfire 45 in 22 balls towards the end to post a decent score before the Indian bowlers came into the picture and dismissed New Zealand for 217 runs.