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After winning the first two ODIs with the same squad, India made two changes to their playing XI for the third match against New Zealand. While MS Dhoni sat out due a sore hamstring, Hardik Pandya made his way into the side in place of Vijay Shankar.
Even with the two changes, the result of the match remained the same as India went on to win the third ODI comfortably by 7 wickets. A collective effort from the Indian bowling unit was excellently backed up by the Indian batsmen to give them an ODI series win in New Zealand.
Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first but they did not get the anticipated start. India's opening bowlers - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami sent back the Kiwi openers - Martin Guptill and Colin Munro for paltry scores.
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Later, Kane Williamson tried his best to build a partnership with Ross Taylor but an outstanding catch by Hardik Pandya ended the New Zealand skipper's stay in the middle. With the departure of Williamson, Tom Latham joined Taylor in the middle and the two stitched a 119-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
The partnership put New Zealand in a good position for that moment, but once Chahal picked the wicket of Latham, things went downhill for the home team.
After Latham's wicket, India started to build pressure on the new batsmen by keeping Ross Taylor off strike for most parts. Hardik Pandya, on his return, took the wickets of the next two batsmen - Henry Nicholls and Mitchell Santner.
Even the settled Ross Taylor felt the pressure to score quick runs and ended up giving his wicket to Shami when he was just 7 runs short of a century. After Taylor got out, Kumar and Shami cleaned up the tail and bowled out the home team by the end of the 49th over.
The Indian chase was built on two key partnerships. After Shikhar Dhawan got out without capitalizing on the start, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli added 113 runs for the second wicket. After reaching their respective half-centuries, both Sharma and Kohli gave their wickets away.
The departure of the two settled batsmen brought Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik in the middle. The two new batsmen, fighting for their spot in the World Cup, were in no mood to give away the opportunity at hand. For the fourth wicket, they scored 77 runs off 71 balls and took India home with 7 overs left to spare.
While Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli helped India chase down the total, it was Man of the Match Mohammed Shami, that set the innings up for India. Shami picked up three wickets including the ones of Martin Guptill and New Zealand's highest scorer Ross Taylor.
Here's how Twitter reacted to India's series win over New Zealand:
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