A dominating performance from the hosts and especially their captain who reached his eighth century, with support from the in-form Virat Kohli, to seal a second straight win. It's going to be an uphill task for New Zealand to fight back from here on. The chase never looked to go off track, and it was in the middle overs that one would think New Zealand faltered badly, giving the loose balls, not building enough pressure and conceding boundaries to ensure it was a one-way traffic. India took advantage and with some skilful batting from Gambhir and Kohli, raced to victory. We'll get you the presentation details in just a short while.
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Presentation time.
Vettori: "It was a good score. I was impressed with the way we batted, but we bowled extremely poorly. What Gambhir played was one of the best one-day innings I have seen. We should have bowled better, we gave width to Gambhir all day and he made us pay for that. If you do that on slowish wickets, it's difficult to control the run-rate. Brendon's improving and he provides us an attacking option with the bat."
Gambhir: "It was important. Getting a century as captain is special, and winning the game was more special. I always felt the wicket was going to improve. I was looking to time the ball and it worked. They batted well and 259 was a decent total, but our bowlers did a good job to contain them. I was looking to watch the ball and react to what was coming towards me. It was a complete team effort, and we want to continue this into the next game and be as professional as possible. Sreesanth has got his Test rhythm in ODI cricket as well, and he's had two really good games this series. We'll be looking to carry this into Baroda and finish it off there."
That's all we have from here, folks. Thanks for tuning in and sending us your feedback. We'll see you again Saturday, so until then it's goodbye.
END OF OVER:43 | 7 Runs | IND: 256/2 (3 runs required from 42 balls, RR: 5.95, RRR: 0.42)
- Gautam Gambhir138 (116b)
- Yuvraj Singh16 (11b)
- Kane Williamson4-0-29-0
- Tim Southee5-0-30-0
END OF OVER:42 | 1 Run | IND: 249/2 (10 runs required from 48 balls, RR: 5.92, RRR: 1.25)
- Yuvraj Singh11 (8b)
- Gautam Gambhir136 (113b)
- Tim Southee5-0-30-0
- Kane Williamson3-0-22-0