McCullum repeats heroics to take NZ home

Brendon McCullum scored an unbeaten 69 and struck the winning run from the final ball as New Zealand beat India by five wickets on Friday to win the two-match Twenty20 International cricket series 2-0.

McCullum batted throughout the 20 overs, managing a run chase which began calmly but became frenetic in the closing overs.

This is McCullum’s fourth consecutive half century in Twenty20 Internationals. His unbeaten knock in this match follows on the heels of the first Twenty20 International, against India on Wednesday, where the opener scored an unbeaten 56 at Christchurch to guide his team to victory.

After India scored a modest 149-6 at Wellington, New Zealand was well positioned after 17 overs, needing 27 runs with eight wickets in hand to win off the final three overs.

But India seamer Irfan Pathan put his team back in the match in the 18th over with wickets in successive balls. He jammed the brakes on New Zealand's scoring with accurate full-pitched bowling.

That left New Zealand four wickets down and needing 23 runs from the last 12 balls.

Neil Broom was dismissed in the penultimate over, and entering the last over, New Zealand needed 12 runs with five wickets left and brothers Brendon and Nathan McCullum at the crease.

Nathan took a leg bye from the first ball from Pathan to give his brother the strike but Brendon could only take a single from the second ball and Nathan another single from the third.

That left the hosts needing nine runs from the last three balls and Pathan's yorkers were proving hard to dispatch.

Brendon McCullum smashed fours from the fourth and fifth balls of the over. Then, with the field up to prevent a single, he popped the final ball just over the inner ring to give New Zealand victory. The final ball was in the air for a while but was just out of reach of a diving Rohit Sharma.

This earned him his second consecutive Man of the Match award. McCullum is currently the highest run-scorer in Twenty20 Internationals.

"It's really pleasing," New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said after the victory. "We won the toss and did what we wanted to do. I was really pleased with the bowling effort to restrict them to 150."

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh top scored for India with 50 from 34 balls.

The tourists made an explosive beginning, as they did in Christchurch, with opener Virender Sehwag scoring 24 of their first 29 runs from just 11 balls with five fours.

Tight bowling by Vettori (1-20), and Jesse Ryder, who conceded only 18 runs from his four overs, slowed India through the middle overs. Though Yuvraj hit four sixes and three fours and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made an unbeaten 28, India was unable to recapture its momentum.

"We could have played a bit better but, still, the approach was good," Dhoni said. "We had a decent start and we had big hitters down the order but the two or three wickets we lost in the middle overs were crucial."

India had a moment of concern when strike bowler Ishant Sharma left the field with a shoulder injury after falling heavily while fielding. There was no immediate indication after the match whether the injury was serious.

The teams meet again in a five-match one-day international series beginning next week. This will be followed by a three-Test series.