Kohli ton in vain as New Zealand secure historic series win
The visitors emerged victorious in the third ODI to seal their first-ever series win in India.
New Zealand clinched their first-ever ODI series win in India with a 41-run win over the hosts in the third ODI in Indore.
While Virat Kohli scored his 54th ODI hundred, continuing his rich vein of form, India fell short against New Zealand, who were powered by centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips.
India put New Zealand in to bat after Shubman Gill won the toss. Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh gave the hosts a dream start, dismissing the two New Zealand openers, Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls cheaply.
Will Young and Mitchell then weathered the early storm to stabilise the Black Caps innings before Rana hit back to get rid of Young.
Glenn Phillips joined and Daryl Mitchell began the rebuild, stepping on the accelerator around the half-way mark in the innings to put the pressure on the Indian spinners.
Smashing 15 fours and three sixes, Mitchell completes his ninth ODI hundred, a second successive in the series. Phillips followed with a century of his own to put visitors on course for a big score.
The 219-run stand ended in the 44th over but it gave New Zealand the momentum to post a score of 337/8 in their 50 overs, thanks to a late cameo from captain Michael Bracewell.
India skipper Shubman Gill started the chase brightly for India. However, New Zealand struck a major blow early on as Rohit Sharma departed in the powerplay.
India were handed more setbacks as they lost Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul within a space of six overs, reeling at 71/4 around the 13th over mark.
Virat Kohli continued his purple patch, leading the India chase. He found support in Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a fine half-century to stitch an 88-run stand with Kohli to keep India in the contest.
It was Kris Clarke, who got the breakthrough to put New Zealand in the driver’s seat again, getting rid of Reddy. Jayden Lennox then removed Ravindra Jadeja soon with the scoreboard reading 176/6. Harshit Rana then joined forces with Kohli to launch a superb-counter-attacking partnership that threatened to pull India back in the game.
Kohli brought up his 54th ODI ton, finding the boundary with ease as he went past ICC Hall of Famer, Ricky Ponting to become the highest-run getter at No.3 in ODI cricket history.
The 99-run stand between Rana and Kohli ended with the former’s dismissal off Zakary Foulkes’ bowling. Zakary struck again off very next ball to send Mohammed Siraj back to the pavilion as India’s chances suffered another blow.
Kohli kept battling on, finding more boundaries with Kuldeep Yadav at the other end but was eventually dismissed as he miscued a shot off Clarke, allowing Mitchell to complete the catch and put New Zealand on the brink.
India were bowled out for 296 in 46 overs as New Zealand won the match by 41 runs and won the series 2-1.
This marks the visitors’ first-ever ODI series win in India, just two years on from their historic 3-0 Test series win.
The two teams will next lock horns in a five-match T20I series starting Wednesday, which will be their final assignment ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 starting February 7.
