The BLACKCAPS slumped to their fifth loss against Indian in the One-Day Series with the hosts winning by eight wickets in the final match in Chennai.
After winning the toss and batting first New Zealand crashed to 103 all out with India reaching the target with 23 overs to spare.
After the loss of early wicket the BLACKCAPS looked to have rebuilt with Jamie How (23) and Scott Styris (24) taking the score through to 71 for three but the spin bowling of Ashwin, Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh ripped through the batting line up.
Yuvraj and Pathan picket up two apiece while Yuvraj finished with his sides best figures of three for 24 off eight overs.
India got off to a shaky start in reply to the small total, losing Gautam Gambhir for none and Virat Kohli for 2 but a third wicket partnership between Parthiv Patel (56*) and Yuvraj Singh (42*) sealed the comfortable win.
Nathan McCullum, one for 26 off six, and Daniel Vettori, one for 30 off six, were the wicket takers.
Speaking after the match Vettori said: “The wicket played pretty truly to how with thought. We wanted to put a score on the board and hope the wicket would deteriorate more as the game went on but unfortunately we lost too many wickets in those middle stages and there was no chance to put that decent score on the board.
“I think that if we got around 200 it would have been a really good game.
“We consistently haven’t played as a team. One day we’ve batted well and bowled poorly and to win one-day cricket you’ve got to bring everything to the table.
“India have shown that to us all series. In all five games they haven’t let themselves down in any department and unfortunately we have.”
