Related Links : New Zealand Vs India, 5th ODI Scorecard | India in New Zealand 2008/09
Jesse Ryder gave a perfect all-round performance to help New Zealand win the fifth and final ODI at the Eden Park in Auckland. On a spicy pitch, India folded to 149 all out and when the Kiwis came into bat, the movement in the pitch ceased to exist and Ryder bulldozed the Indian bowling with his fearless hitting. New Zealand won by 8 wickets but had lost the 5-ODI Series 1-3.
Toss: The match got off to a delayed start and had to be curtailed to 43 overs because of rain early on. An uncertain Dhoni decided to bat first with more rain in store. India made no changes at all while the Kiwis brought in Scott Styris for Ewen Thompson.
Oram, Ryder bowl out India cheaply
Indian batsmen had no clue whatsoever to the extravagant movement and bounce off the wicket. Despite all that Virender Sehwag banked on his intimidating effect over the bowlers by taking them on. He lost his partner Gambhir though very early in the 5th over through yet another dab shot. India was still going well thanks to Sehwag but in the 10th over, Suresh Raina played a needless big shot to throw his wicket away and leave the score at 65 for 2 in the 10th over. In the 12th over, Sehwag too fell playing a big shot to make it 69 for 3. Viru had scored 40 from 27 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes. After his fall, India had collapsed with the batsmen just not able to cope up with the seam movement. Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan had come and disappeared in the space of 30 minutes.
The visitors could only get to 149 having got bowled out in 36.3 overs. Rohit Sharma was the top scorer with an unbeaten 43 from 74 balls which included a glorious six off Vettori. Rohit had a painful innings though and was instrumental in a couple of run outs besides frustrating Sehwag by not rotating the strike that often. The pick of the bowlers was Jacob Oram with 2 for 22 in 9 overs and Jesse Ryder with 3 for 29 in 9 overs. Ryder surprised everyone with his pace which was close to 135 kmph.
Ryder, Guptill blast Kiwis to easy win
The Indian new ball attack couldn’t find any movement off the wicket like their counterparts. Praveen Kumar did get an early wicket but that came via a rash shot from Brendon McCullum. With the ball nicely coming onto the bat, Jesse Ryder continued to play the attacking shots whenever he could and the target came down quickly. Ishant Sharma was given preferential treatment by the stout left hander. It was batting at its best from Ryder as he picked the lengths in a flash and was sending the ball big into the mid wicket gallery. Ishant could have so easily have forgotten his bowling, such was the kind of punishment that he took despite not bowling so badly! As many as three sixes were plundered off Ishant by Ryder though the bowler ended up with his wicket. Ryder had got out after chopping a cut shot onto the stumps but not before smashing 63 from 49 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes.
New Zealand were almost there at 93 for 2 in 15 overs when Ryder got out. They got the remaining runs quickly through the attacking shots from Martin Guptill (57* from 50 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes) and Ross Taylor (28* from 33 balls with 4 fours and a six). Ishant Sharma was taken to the cleaners for 63 runs in 7.2 overs while Zaheer Khan got punished by Guptill, the left armer had figures of 0 for 51 in 8 overs. New Zealand chased the target of 150 in just 23.2 overs. The Man of the Match was Jesse Ryder and the Player of the Series was Virender Sehwag.