Leg spinner Amit Mishra wreak havoc on New Zealand batsmen as he completely derailed their chase by taking 5 wickets in the fifth and final ODI. India won the match by 190 runs as New Zealand were bundled out for 79 runs. India won the series 3-2.
Mishra took the wickets in quick succession to annihilate the Kiwis . Jaspreet Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Jayant Yadav took one wicket each. Axar Patel took 2 wickets.
India posted a challenging total of 269 runs in the fifth ODI against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam. Indian opener Rohit Sharma returned in form as he scored 70 runs in 65 balls. He hit 3 sixes in his innings. Ajinkya Rahane again disappointed as he scored 20 runs in 39 balls. Virat Kohli again showed his consistency as he scored a patient 65 runs. MS Dhoni chipped in with 41 runs. In the fag end of the innings, Axar Patel and Kedar Jadhav shared an important partnership that brought the team total to 269. Jadhav scored 39 runs and Axar Patel scored 24 runs.
The Visakhapatnam pitch turned out to be slow. The batsmen were having difficulty in playing their shots. 269 was a challenging total as India were a spin-heavy side. India had many slow bowling options including Kedar Jadhav who has the ability to completely take pace off the ball. Jadhav troubled the New Zealand batsmen all through the series. He was among the leading wickets takers for India in the series. After his innings, Kedar Jadhav said that when Virat Kohli was playing India were aiming to score 290 runs. Later, they realised that the pitch was very slow. They revised their target to 270.
The New Zealand bowlers read the pitch well as they bowled slow balls regularly. New Zealand pacers troubled Kedar Jadhav as he missed several slower balls. Spinner Michael Santner was the pick of the bowler. He took a wicket and was very economical. He just gave away 36 runs in his quota of 10 overs. Ish Sodhi was expensive as he gave 66 runs in 10 overs. But he took two wickets including Virat Kohli. If he had not got him out, India might have scored more runs.
